Surankote (Poonch), Apr 17: Accusing coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir of working under a well planned conspiracy to weaken Panchayat institutions in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday said that the “shadow boxing” between Congress and National Conference was a “farce aimed at shifting the focus of the people from the main issue”.
  “They (Cong, NC leaders) are indulging in shadow boxing by raising fingers at each other, while both parties have let down millions of voters who elected their panchs and sarpanchs with the hope of shaping their destiny at local level”, Mehbooba said while addressing a public meeting, here.
 Asserting that the coalition government was wasting a historic opportunity to empower the people of the state by creating hurdles in the growth of Panchayats as independent community based institutions, Mehbooba said that people have understood the “game-plan of the alliance and it is understood that every effort is being made to weaken the democratic system for personal political gains”.
 “However government might be able to delay the inevitable empowerment of Panchayats but it won’t be allowed to prevent it”, she said adding that the coalition with its “deceiving tactics has already created much damage to the trust and confidence reposed by the people after hectic efforts by her party.
  The PDP president said her party was clear from day one about the need for full empowerment of Panchayats as was resolved at the Panchayat conference organized by it in July last year. The government on the other hand has only been making hollow announcements without actually giving any powers or development funds to the panchayats.
 She said the elections to the block and district councils had not been conducted for one full year, neither had any funds been provided to Panchayats nor the remuneration released to Panchs and Sarpanchs.
 Referring to the delay in elections to the urban local bodies Mehbooba said this government was scared of facing the public and was therefore unwilling to carry forward the process of elections.
 She said the ruling parties were trying to subvert the entire democratic system on one pretext or the other and the urban local bodies had become the victim of their insecurity at popular level.
 Mehbooba said the price for the corruption and misgovernance was being paid by the common people of the state. “The money that goes into the pocket of the rulers is actually to be used for our roads, drinking water, schools and medical facilities”, she said adding, “While the government failed to perform its duties on these important fronts, it is adding burden on every body by hiking the prices of commodities, power tariff and drinking water fees”.
 She said the proposed hike in the power tariff which is the third since NC government took over comes with the Chief Ministers announcement of further cuts in power supply. “Nothing could be more cruel than this from a government that had promised free electricity and cooking gas during its election campaign”, she said. 
 Mehbooba said while corruption in rest of the country was taking a heavy toll of political careers and reputations Jammu and Kashmir was witnessing a concerted effort by institutions of the state to protect the corrupt politicians.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST