J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday approved the proposal of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to issue a notification for conducting elections to vacant sarpanch and panch constituencies in the Union Territory.
“Filling of the vacant constitutional posts will ensure devolution of powers and proper grass-roots planning in the third-tier of the local self-government. It will ensure that the non-functional Panchayats become functional,” an official spokesman said.
The detailed schedule of these elections will be finalised by the election authority.
Out of the 39,521 sarpanch and panch constituencies where polls were conducted in 2018, around 13,257 positions were vacant for many reasons.
“Around 1,089 vacancies pertain to the office of sarpanch, whereas 12,168 are panch vacancies,” the official said.
The elections to the vacancies notified earlier were postponed due to security concerns and the onset of COVID-19 in J&K.
