Jammu: Elected representatives of Muraliya Panchayat in Jammu district Tuesday threatened to boycott the Block Development Council polls, scheduled in November this year, over the alleged "delay" in empowerment of panchayats.
"We have decided to boycott BDC polls if the state government ignores our demand to empower panchayats and fails to implement it at the earliest," Sarpanch Kishore Kumar told reporters here.
There is no need for elections as government has failed to empower the panchayats fully by granting powers to panches and sarpanches under the 73rd amendment of the Indian Constitution, he said.
"We oppose these elections as Panchayati Raj institution has not been given full powers and infrastructure including Panchayat Ghars," Kumar said.
"We appeal to all the panches and sarpanches across the state to boycott forthcoming BDC polls as it would not do any good for their empowerment at the grass-root level", he said.
Jammu and Kashmir Government has announced BDC polls across the state in November this year.
A total of 29,402 panches and 4,089 sarpanches in the state would elect 143 BDC members including 77 for Kashmir valley and 66 for Jammu region.
PTI
