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Kashmir outreach

via ‘Back to Village’

• Happy moments The villagers seem
Under the programme, 5,000 officials meet panchayat members delighted with the new government initiative

to know the well being of people, writes riyaz wani
n a first outreach to people in Kash- The newly elected Lieutenant gover- early this year. Two ensuring functional-
mir Valley following the revoca- nor Girish Chander Murmu has stressed ity of panchayats in terms of manpower.
tion of Article 370 on August 5, J&K on “bridging the gap between achievable Three, 100 percent coverage of benefi-
Government has re-launched the and achieved goals in development and ciary oriented schemes. Four, doubling of
I Back to Village programme. Under taking governance to doorstep of the income of rural people by giving impetus
the programme, 5,000 gazzeted gov- rural and inaccessible areas to generate to rural economy.
ernment officials are sent to rural areas credible and empirical feedback”. The feedback from the latest Back to
for two days and one night to interact Similarly Principal Secretary Plan- Village is being incorporated in the for-
with the panchayat members. They en- ning Rohit Kansal has said that the mulation of the district development
quire about the problems of the villag- principal objective of the Back to Vil- plans.
ers, ask about the progress of flagship lage program is the development and The Back to Village was first started in
programmes and make an assessment empowerment of Panchayat. He said the June and had been a success. The villag-
report and recommendation for further program will be mainly based on four ers were delighted to see senior govern-
action to concerned district develop- themes: one, follow up on the achieve- ment officials at their door steps and lis-
ment commissioners. ments of first Back to Village program ten to their grievances. Now government

n a recent statement, J&K’s first Assembly now be elected to a largely disempow-
Lieutenant Governor Girish Chan- ered assembly which will be subservient
der Murmu has said that his gov- polls may to Lieutenant Governor’s administration.
ernment is pro-actively working The next elected chief minister will have
I to hold Assembly elections in the drastically curtailed remit and, in most
newly created union territory. However, usher political matters, will have to go by the orders of
there has so far been no talk of releasing the LG.
the political leaders whose presence on activity in J&K It will be interesting to see how the
the scene is important to usher in the mainstream parties like National Con-
long suspended political activity. All ma- ference, the PDP and Congress will
jor political leaders from the Kashmir It will be interesting to see how approach an Assembly election. The
based parties including three former the mainstream parties will three parties had recently boycotted the
Chief Ministers — Dr Farooq Abdullah, block development council (BDC) polls,
Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — approach a byelection, making the BJP the only major party to
are currently under detention. reports riyaz wani contest the election.
Though Murmu’s statement indicates Between them the National Confer-
government’s intention to restart politi- ence, the PDP and Congress control
cal activity in the UT, people in the Val- “People aren’t sure what is in store,” more than two-thirds of the electoral
ley are inclined to be sceptical of any said Naseer Ahmad, a columnist. “Be- space in Kashmir Valley and also wield
such prospect. This is because the gov- fore revocation of Article 370, people a significant political clout in Jammu
ernments in J&K and in New Delhi have did want an Assembly election. But now region. The made the BDC polls of lit-
been making such statements over the they aren’t keen about it. They don’t tle interest to the people, creating a dif-
past one and a half year but the elections think elections will make any redeeming ficult situation for the governments in
have not been held. Along the way, J&K difference”. the state and New Delhi which could not
has come to lose its special status under Ahmad is right in a sense. Elections to make the polls appear credible in the ab-
the constitution and been bifurcated into a UT Assembly have now an entirely dif- sence of the major parties.
two union territories, J&K and Ladakh. ferent meaning. The representatives will “Assembly polls are an entirely dif-

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