Thursday 21 March 2013

Panchayat members threaten to go on hunger strike

Panchayat members in the state today threatened to go on a hunger strike from March 24, if a Bill seeking more powers for them was not presented in the Assembly within a week.

Follow up:

Addressing a press conference, general secretary of the All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) Anil Sharma said, “We urge the government to bring in a Bill within seven days to implement all provisions of the 73rd Amendment Act. If the government fails to do so, we will go on a 72-hour-long hunger strike from March 24.”

The AJKPC is an apex body of about 33,000 panchayat members. Sharma said their main aim was empowerment of panchayats. “We are not satisfied with the raise in the honorarium for panches and sarpanches, though we believe it is a step in the right direction. Our main objective is empowerment of panchayats and security for panches and sarpanches,” Sharma said.





He said the AJKPC had been hoping that senior legislators such as Harsh Dev Singh of the National Panthers Party and CPM MLA MY Tarigami would raise their voice in support of the panchayats.

“We expected that our senior MLAs will raise their voice in support of the panchayat members and will force the government to implement the 73rd Amendment Act, but they are discussing something else.” Stressing on the need for security to panchayat members, he said the government was spending crores on security of VIPs, but ignoring those who needed it the most.

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