Democracy flourishes after strengthening Panchayati Raj System in JK: Dr Jitender Singh

Srinagar Nov 30 (KNS): Asserting that grassroots democracy has started to flourish in form of Panchayati Raj System in Jammu and Kashmir, senior BJP leader and MoS in PMO Dr Jitender Singh on Monday said that common masses across J&K have witnessed the real self-rule and autonomy after a gap of seven decades.
According to KNS correspondent,Addressing a press conference in central Kashmir’s Srinagar district, Dr Singh said that after the establishment of Panchayati Raj System in J&K, people have started to witness the fruits of real self-rule and autonomy.
“It was for the first time that grassroots democracy was seeing light of the day in J&K after a gap of 73 years. From past over 50 years, regional parties have been beating the drums of autonomy and self-rule”, Dr Singh said.
Lashing out on regional mainstream political parties, Dr Singh said that they always wanted autonomy, self-rule and other perks for themselves by winning elections with just 10 percent voting while common people were always cheated over hollow slogans.
Terming DDC election imperative to ensure development at grassroots level, Dr Singh said that the said election is basically a pledge of PM Modi towards people of J&K to realize the real meaning of development at the grassroots level. The minister claimed that this is just a beginning of new chapter of development in Kashmir and added the people during DDC polls should introspect whom to be elected and whom to be rejected.
He asserted that part of Kashmir lying under the occupation of Pakistan is an issue with the neighboring country that needs to be retrieved. “The only issue with Pakistan is the resolution that passed in the Parliament in 1994 that states the part of Kashmir under its control needs to be retrieved”, MoS said.
He expressed gratitude over high voter turn-out during first phase of DDC polls that were held on November 28 across 43 constituencies across the Union Territory. “During first phase, polling recorded over 50 percent which is more than Lok Sabha polls. People had got disheartened due to traditional politic and so their aspirations were also disappointed”, the BJP leader said.
Hitting hard to regional political parties, Dr Singh said that if they were so disappointed and outraged, they should have simply resigned from the Parliament over abrogation of Article 370. “Why they are deceiving people? Why they didn’t do it and returned to the people over the issue. They didn’t leave the chair for perks”, he said. (KNS) 

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