SRINAGAR: In exercise of powers conferred by section 80 of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 and all other provisions enabling in this behalf, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has made amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996.
As per a notification issued here today in this regard by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Sub-rule (1) of rule 74 shall be substituted by the sub-rule namely “ (1) Every candidate who desires to contest the election of Sarpanch/Panch of Halqa Panchayat/Elected Member in District Development Council/Chairperson of Panchayati Adalat/ Chairperson, Block Development Council/Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of District Development Council shall have to take an oath as per “Form 4” of the rules before the prescribed authorities.”
In rule 74-A, in sub-rule (1) for the words “Chairman of Block Development Council”, the words and sign “Chairperson of Block Development Council/Member of District Development Council/Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of District Development Council” shall be substituted.
After sub-rule (3) of rule 108-A, the sub-rules shall be inserted namely “(3A) The number of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Women for each District Development Council shall be fixed on the basis of prescribed ratio under section 45-A of the Act for each category and applying the principles of mathematic round off with the part fraction of 0.5 and above being rounded off to one and part fraction below 0.5 being ignored for each constituency separately. (3B) The number of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste as provided in Rule 3A shall be allotted to different territorial constituencies on the basis of the proportion of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste population to total population of the constituency in descending order, that is, from amongst the territorial constituencies in the District Development Council, the territorial constituency having the largest proportion of the Scheduled Tribes population shall be allotted to them and the territorial constituencies having the largest proportion of Scheduled Caste population shall be allotted to them.
In the subsequent elections, the allotment shall be made in the aforesaid manner so that as far as may be practicable, the territorial constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the previous election shall not be allotted to Scheduled Tribes, and the territorial constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes shall not be allotted to the Scheduled Castes.
(3C) The allocation of constituencies to be reserved for Women shall be made on a three-point roster system for each category separately of Women (Open Category), Women (Scheduled Caste Category) and Women (Scheduled Tribe Category). The roaster points shall be taken as under:
(i) Seat reserved for women;
(ii) Open seat; and
(iii) Open seat
(3D) The three-point roaster system under sub-rule (3C) shall be applied for each constituency of the District Development Council in each category of Open, Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe separately after listing them in alphabetic order for each category. In case the roaster leads to a constituency which is reserved for the elections in a particular year under the same category, the constituency immediately next in serial shall be reserved for that particular roaster point in the subsequent elections.
(3E) If on the basis of population of the Scheduled Tribes or of the Scheduled Castes in a District, only one seat can be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes or for the Scheduled Castes as the case may be, such seat shall be treated as part of the Open Category for the purpose of reservation of seats for women.
The roaster for women reservation as prescribed in Rule 3C and 3D above shall also be applicable to the elections of the Chairpersons of the District Development Councils.
After rule 108-ZJ, the rules to be inserted included “108-ZJJ. Resignation before taking the oath of office. An elected member of the District Development Council who also happens to be a Sarpanch/Panch or Chairperson of the Block Development Council may after being so elected and before taking an oath of office for the District Development Council under rule 74-A shall tender his resignation from Sarpanch/ Panch or Chairperson of the Block Development Council to the District Development Commissioner who shall after its acceptance inform the Election Authority and the Government.
