Login With Google
J&K to club panchayat polls
Why it is in news?
- Jammu and Kashmir is gearing up for simultaneous local body elections to the posts of panch and sarpanch.
- A panch is an elected member of a village ward and a sarpanch is the head of a cluster of wards or a village.
- Earlier the panchs used to elect the sarpanchs.
- This time, there will be two votes — one for the panch and the other for the sarpanch; it’s a direct election.
- Voting will be done simultaneously, with a voter will elect the panch as well as the sarpanch.
Plea on 35A hearing
- The State government currently under Governor’s Rule moved a plea in the Supreme Court to defer the hearing in a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution
- It cited the upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections.
- Article 35A lets the J&K Legislature decide the “permanent residents” of the State, prohibits a non-J&K resident from buying property in the State and ensures job reservation for its residents.
Polls last held in 2011
- The panchayat elections last held in 2011 could not be conducted for security reasons and because of the tourist season.
- Elections to the urban local bodies were last held in 2005.
- The Police said the administration had conducted an internal review on the abductions and killings of policemen in the Valley.
Source
The Hindu