23-09-2023 : The Congress party has raised concerns over the decision by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to conduct urban local body (ULB) and Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) elections under separate election authorities. Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Vikar Rasool Wani, addressed this issue in a letter addressed to Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, urging that municipal corporation and other urban local body elections should be conducted under the purview of the state election commission, similar to the process followed for panchayat elections as mandated by the 74th amendment of the Constitution.
In his letter, Wani highlighted that the Congress was perturbed by the fact that the ULB elections were being conducted without the direct supervision and control of the state election commission, which he viewed as a direct violation of the 74th constitutional amendment. He pointed out the inconsistency where rural panchayat elections are overseen by the state election commission while urban local body elections fall under the jurisdiction of the chief electoral officer, labeling it as “illegal” and counter to the constitutional spirit.
Wani appealed to the Lt. Governor to rectify this constitutional anomaly promptly and ensure that elections for municipal corporations and other urban local bodies are conducted under the oversight of an independent state election commission as per the constitutional mandate. He emphasized the need for uniformity and questioned the use of two different norms within the Union Territory for the same set of Panchayati Raj institutions, one for rural areas and another for urban areas.
The Congress leader also referenced the significant role played by the Congress party in the introduction and implementation of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, which extended the guarantee of 33 percent representation for women in all three tiers of rural panchayats and urban local bodies, along with proportional representation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Furthermore, Wani stressed the importance of these amendments, which not only paved the way for increased representation but also mandated that elections for these fundamental democratic institutions be conducted under the supervision and control of an independent state election commission. While such a commission has been duly established in Jammu and Kashmir, it has been granted authority only over panchayat elections and not urban local bodies until now. This, he argued, is inconsistent with the spirit of these constitutional amendments.