More than 700 nominations have been filed for 250 panchayat seats in the Kashmir division that goes to polls in the first phase on November 17.
Over 1,100 nominations have been submitted for 288 seats in the Jammu division, a senior government official said.
The official said that 2,350 nominations were received for 2,000 wards in Kashmir and 4,500 for 2,130 in Jammu. October 30 was the last date for filing nominations for the first phase.
The panchayat elections were held previously in April-May 2011 with an 80% voter turnout.
J&K has 4,130 sarpanches (village heads) and 29,719 panches (panchayat members).
Direct elections
Panch is an elected member of one of the village wards, whereas a sarpanch is the head of a cluster of wards or a village. On July 12, the State Administrative Council under the chairmanship of then Governor N.N. Vohra had approved a proposal to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, for conducting direct elections of sarpanches and panches.
The high number of nominations indicates a healthy turnout in the coming polls, the official said.
The municipal polls in the Kashmir Valley held in October after a gap of 13 years were marred by poor voter turnout, with only 4% polling. In the civic body polls held in four phases, 187 of the 1,145 seats went uncontested, of which 186 were in the Kashmir Valley.
The first phase in Kashmir division mostly comprises panchayats in North Kashmir such as Kupwara (five blocks), Bandipora (three), Baramulla (five) and Ganderbal, Srinagar and Budgam (one each). The other blocks that go to the polls in the Kashmir division are in Kargil (four) and Leh (six) districts.
The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party had boycotted the municipal polls. The panchayat elections are not held on party lines.
Not on party lines
“Since the political parties boycotted the municipal polls, the voter turnout was extremely low. We expect a better turnout in panchayat polls as it is not fought on party lines and is expected to help grassroots democracy,” said the official.
J&K adopted most of the recommendations of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act that was passed by Parliament in 1993. The amendment provided constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions.
Following this, the financial powers of panchayats in J&K are being enhanced from ₹10,000 to ₹1 lakh.
The panchayat elections will also pave the way for making available nearly ₹4,335 crore of the 14th Finance Commission central grants to the duly constituted local bodies.
