Srinagar, July 20: Opposition PDP today announced a state-level conference of newly-elected Panchayat members on July 28 to discuss empowerment of local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir.
 "All the panchayat members elected recently and affiliated with PDP would be attending the day-long conference," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement here.
 She said Panchs and Sarpanchs from Kashmir and Jammu regions would be attending the conference, which will first of its kind ever in the state.
 Besides discussing the political and governance scenario of the state, the PDP president said the conference would also focus on the issue of empowerment of Panchayats.
 Mehbooba said empowerment of panchayats has assumed importance in view of the Jammu and Kashmir government's failure to even formally set up these institutions.
 "Formal notifications of the elected members of Panchayats are still to be issued even as some of them were elected three months back," she said.
 The PDP president alleged that the NC-led government was trying to subvert the system right from the outset.
 "Instead of trying to institutionalize the Panchayats, the NC is trying to pressure or lure panches and sarpanches to join the party that has been routed at the ground-level," she claimed.
 Mehbooba claimed even though the NC-supported candidates lost most of the seats, the defeated candidates were being patronised rather than help establish a genuine panchayat raj through elected members of these institutions.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST