The by-polls for vacant 12,500 Panchayat seats in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to get further deferred following scare of covid-19 virus which has put to risk lives across the globe.
Sources informed Greater Kashmir that the UT administrationhas conveyed to the Central government and the Union Ministry of Home Affairsthat “holding Panchayat by-elections won’t be conducive at a time when J&Kgovernment has ordered closure of schools, colleges and universities, and askedthe people to avoid mass gathering in view of coronavirus threat.”
“The central government toois in favor of deferment of grassroots level elections which could have beenfirst such exercise since J&K was downgraded into Union Territory,” sourcesadded. Initially, the by-poll was scheduled to be held from 5 March, but on 18February, Chief Electoral Commissioner, Shailendra Kumar, had announced itsdeferment by two to three weeks after the J&K Home Department had asked theElection Commission (EC) to postpone the polls “citing security reasons”.
Speaking to GreaterKashmir, Chief Electoral Officer J&K, Shailendra Kumar said: “Health isfirst priority. But still I am waiting for the government response on holdingelection for vacant seats, which was deferred last month.” Elections for 35,029Panchs and 4,483 Sarpanches were held on non-party basis in the erstwhileJ&K state (which included Ladakh as well) in November-December 2018.However, despite the polls, more than 60% seats in Kashmir remained vacant asat many places candidates didn’t file nomination papers or resigned aftergetting elected.
North Kashmir’s Baramulladistrict has 2163 vacant Panchayat wards, followed by Anantnag with 1995 vacantwards; Budgam and Pulwama districts have 1940 and 1437 vacant wards,respectively.
Similarly, of the 2182Sarpanch vacancies in Kashmir, 923 are vacant while there are 36 Sarpanchvacancies in snowbound areas. Since the 2018 polls, 504 Panchs have resignedfor “various reasons”.
The announcement ofby-polls had raised controversy with majority of political parties questioningthe logic of conducting these polls on party basis at a time when the heads ofkey political parties were under protracted incarceration.