Srinagar, Sep 22: Congress General Secretary and in- charge JK affairs, Ambika Soni, Sunday said that National Conference should implement the report prepared by the State unit of Congress, seeking incorporation of some clauses of 73rd amendment of Indian Constitution into JK Panchayat Raj Act, within two months. She also said that Coalition Coordination Committee ( CCC) meetings should be convened twice a month with a copy of agenda to be sent to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Addressing Congress ministers, MLAs and workers during one- day party convention at SKICC here, Ambika said Panchayat Raj System was the dream of late Rajiv Gandhi. “ We have been assured by our coalition partner on the 73rd amendment provisions which Congress wants to see in JK. The provisions should be incorporated within two months. The issue was discussed in the CCC meeting earlier and I suggest CCC should meet twice a month. The copies of agenda should be sent to Soniaji and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,” she said. Ambika said they will monitor the new arrangement. “ If that doesn’t work, we will be forced to think on how next elections have to be fought,” she said. She said every coalition means “ give and take.” “ It is always better to have own government, but for that we need to have a majority,” she said. “ In 2002, there was a direction from the party high command for forming a coalition in JK. Now if somebody says we should resign from the government, that is not an easy job. It is never easy to resign.” She, however, said the day would come soon when Congress would have its own government in JK. Ambika also said that she has met all 12 ministers of the Congress and directed them to remain present in party offices of Srinagar and Jammu on rotational basis. “ They have agreed to meet people in party offices rather than leaving them to face humiliation in the Civil Secretariat,” Ambika said. Asking Congress leaders to stay united, she said the party leadership would visit every district and take a first- hand account of condition of roads, schools, drains etc. Earlier, Minister for Tourism, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, explained the contours of the provisions that Congress wanted to incorporate in the JK Panchayat Raj act 1989. “ A wrong impression was created initially that Congress wanted to extend entire 73rd amendment into JK’s Act, which was never our intention,” said Mir. “ There are 30,000 Sarpanchs and Panchs, and our efforts were to keep this flock together as they had contested polls in a difficult situation. But our coalition partner jumped the gun and announced second phase of elections in the form of Block Development Council ( BDC), to which we opposed as there was no reservation for women.” Mir urged the Congress leadership to give a direction to JK unit so that 73rd amendment provisions could be implemented. On the occasion, a resolution in favour of the amendments was moved by Congress MLC G N Monga, who has been elected from the panchayat quota. The resolution was passed unanimously.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 03:46:04 +0000
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