The newly elected District Development Council (DDC) members were on Monday administered oath in their respective districts in Kashmir valley.
An official said that the oath taking ceremony was held in all 10 districts of the valley for DDC members, who were elected in recently held elections which witnessed a voting turnout of about 51 per cent in J&K.
During the ceremonies, as many as 14 DDC members from each district were administered oath by their respective Deputy Commissioners. “The ceremonies were attended by senior police and security force officers, besides officials from the administration,” he said.
In Srinagar, the oath taking ceremony was attended by Divisional Commissioner P K Pole, who during his address to the members, hoped that they will work for the development`and betterment of the people in their respective constituencies and districts. “DDC already existed on the rest of the country from last over 50 to 60 years and the members to these councils are elected directly by the people. In J&K, the members were to be elected indirectly according to previous act. The 73 amendment to the Constitution was extended for the first time in J&K following which DDC elections were held in eight phases,” Mr Pole told reporters on the sideline of the ceremony.
He said a lot of preparation had to be done for conducting these elections and the people participated in the polls in large numbers. “Now that the people have elected their representatives they hopefully won’t have to come to the officers of their Deputy Commissioners or Divisional Commissioner as their issues will be resolved by local level,” he added.
The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) bagged 110 seats of the total 280 constituencies in the maiden DDC elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 75 DDC constituencies followed by J&K National Conference with 67 seats. The PDP bagged 27 while the Congress won 26 seats. The newly formed J&K Apni Party (JKAP) won 12 while JKPC and CPI-M bagged eight and five seats respectively. Meanwhile, independents turned out to be key players during these elections by winning 50 seats.