Process in motion
Government has recently announced formation of apex committees for the elections of District Development Councils as these members would be elected and the elections would be held in every district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The term of the DDC will be five years, and the electoral process will allow for reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. The Additional District Development Commissioner (or the Additional DC) of the district shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the District Development Council.
The council, as stated in the Act, will hold at least four “general meetings” in a year, one in each quarter. It shows that the government has decided to accelerate the pace of development by these councils as they will be having the powers to give go ahead to all such decisions on time and with each quarter having at least one meeting indicates that there would be no lax attitude for the development at the ground level.
The 14 constituencies for electing representatives to the DDC will have to be delimited. These constituencies will be carved out of the rural areas of the district, and elected members will subsequently elect a chairperson and a vice-chairperson of the DDC from among themselves.
The notification for the election is likely to be issued within the few days, the government said. When the notification would be issued the government will set the process in motion for these elections, as they have already decided to hold by elections for the 13 thousand panchayat vacancies also in order to give boost to the process of development at the grass root level.
