Jammu, June 12: Hundreds of Sarpanchs and Panchs of Jammu province on Tuesday took out a protest march against the Coalition government here demanding the implementation of the 73rd constitutional amendment at the earliest.
 Led by BJP MLAs Jugal Kishore Sharma, Shyam Choudhary and Sukhnandan Kumar, the elected panchs and sarpanchs took out the protest march from party headquarter here to civil secretariat amid slogans against the government.
 The agitating panchs also burned the effigy of the state government and demanded immediate redressal of their problems.
 "It has been more than one year since we were elected, but government has done nothing to empower and facilitate us," one of the agitating sarpanches said.
 "The state government has totally ignored the panchayats and their elected representatives during the last one year. Although repeated assurances have been given to empower panchayats, nothing in practical has been done in this regard," BJP legislator Jugal Kishore Sharma said.
 "While most of the states in India have implemented the 73rd Constitutional amendment with a motive to give full rights to panchayats, here in our state these people are being deprived of this right," Sharma pointed.
 The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 mandates provisions for establishment of provide three-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all states having population of over 20 lakh, establishment of gram sabhas at the village level, regular elections to Panchayats every five years among others.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
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