LIFE COVER
Recently UT administration of Jammu and Kashmir has decided to give an insurance cover of Rs 25 lakh to all the panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir in wake of recent killings.
Earlier in 2018, when the regional parties like National Conference and PDP decided to boycott local panchayat elections, the central government decided to go ahead with elections. In order to get candidates for these elections, the government promised insurance cover, security and all powers to panchayats to function freely on the ground.
We are already in the month of July 2020, most of the promises have remained on paper and many elected panchayat members have been hiding from their villages and living in small hotel rooms of Srinagar with no proper security.
Relatively calm district of Budgam has seen in the recent past silent migration of panchs, sarpanchs and BJP affiliated local leaders. After the killing of Waseem Bari his father and brother.
All of the slain family members of Waseem were working for BJP in Bandipora district and it has brought a fresh wave of fear and anger among such elected members and their families in Kashmir.
The announcement of Rs 25 lakh cover for such people is a good beginning but most of them have been complaining about the lack of response by the local administration on ground whenever they move to government offices with public demands and grievances.
Government will have changed their attitude especially civil servants towards locally elected panchayat members so that they get the power promised to them before elections.
