Members of All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference on Wednesday staged a protest in Srinagar demanding the Manoj Sinha-led administration to fulfil ‘genuine demands’ of the people.
The body consisting of all elected Sarpanchs and Panchs assembled in the Press Enclave and put forth five demands and sought the administration to fulfill them at an earliest.
The first demand is to hold three-tier panchayat election for all District Development Council (DCC) and Block Development Council (BDC) candidates.
The second is to restore old scale supply at ration stores, as people across valley are expressing anguish over a 50% reduction in the ration quota over the last three years, with each individual in a Priority Household (PHH) category now receiving only 5 kilograms of rice instead of the average 10 kilograms, leading to discontent among the people regarding their food needs
“People approach us in villages and we work on behalf of the government on ground level,” said one of the protesting members.
The third demand is that there shouldn’t be high charges for electricity as a it is a local resource of Jammu and Kashmir, the body Sarpanch and Panch body claimed.
In the past two months, protests were reported in Pulwama and Srinagar areas against the installation of smart meters. Locals, mostly women, assembled on roads against the move sought the removal of the order.
The fourth demand is to reserve all government jobs in the union territory for the residents of the JK and no outsider should be eligible for the same citing Ladakh as an example.
The fifth and last demand is release to pending wages of contractors who worked under various schemes in villages under Sarpanchs since 2018.