Jammu and Kashmir will now have elected district development councils as part of its panchayati raj system. The Union Territory administra...
Jammu and Kashmir will now have elected district development councils as part of its panchayati raj system. The Union Territory administration made the announcement on the weekend, just as regional political parties were regrouping after top leaders were released from detention. The changes to the panchayati raj act were intended to kickstart political activity, government officials claimed. Except, this seems to encourage only political activity that will not be a challenge to the Centre or to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
On August 5, 2019, as the Centre stripped Jammu and Kashmir of the special status it had been accorded under the Indian Constitution and split the state into two Union Territories, almost the entire political leadership in the Valley was locked up to stifle protest. With all political mobilisations – separatist as well as pro-India – stilled in the Valley, the Centre pitched local government as a new alternative. Who needs parties, Delhi has argued in Kashmir, when there is “grassroots democracy”?
A broken system
The Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, provides for a three-tier system of local government. The halqa panchayat, representing a cluster of villages, is headed by a sarpanch. Its members are chosen through direct elections. A council of sarpanches is meant to...
