A government that takes appropriate steps to meet the expectations of the people will have the full support of the LG’s office, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha says.
Sinha said the local body elections in the Union territory would be held as soon as the backward classes commission submitted its report on the number of reserved seats for the OBCs and required security forces were made available.
In an interview with the PTI on Monday evening, Sinha said, “The government that takes appropriate steps to meet the expectations of the people, I assure them, the LG’s office will be ready to give full support to it.”
National Conference’s Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the first chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after it became a Union territory.
On the Congress’s opposition and subsequent filing of a petition in court against the nomination of five MLAs to the J-K assembly, Sinha said India was a democracy and everyone had the freedom to oppose anything.
“The country knows that when the Puducherry Assembly was formed, honorable Lal Bahadur Shastri was the home minister. He introduced a proposal to fill all seats through nomination. Some parliamentarians opposed this at the time, and it was then decided that 10 per cent of the members would be nominated. In an assembly of 30, three members would be nominated,” he said.
He further added that a court order had also been issued on the matter earlier.
“This is part of the State Reorganization Act. Those who object can approach the court, but I don’t believe there is anything unconstitutional here,” he said.
Certain provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, empower the LG to nominate five MLAs to the J-K assembly. The NC, PDP, and Congress among others have opposed this provision.
LG Sinha said the panchayat elections should have been held earlier, but the administration is awaiting the report on reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
“If the elections had been held without this (report), the court would have stopped them. Therefore, we had to go to Parliament to amend this. Preparations (for polls) are certainly complete,” he said.
Sinha said as soon as the report of the backward classes commission was received, and based on the availability of security forces and weather conditions, local bodies elections would be held.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a commission to recommend the number of seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies.
