The newly elected members of the District Development Council (DDC) in Jammu have clashed with the district administration over a protocol issue.
Trouble erupted on Tuesday when DDC members, including President Bharat Bushan and Vice President Suraj Singh, boycotted a meeting called to examine proposals for road construction under Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojna-III in the district. of Jammu, complaining that it was a problem. “Violation of protocol and an insult to the recently created democratic institution”, as the letter that was sent to them calling for the meeting was written by an official from the office of the Deputy Commissioner. They said the meeting should have been called by the DDC president and not by an administration official.
In the 14-member DDC, the BJP has 11 members, followed by two independents and one from the National Conference.
DDC President and BJP Leader Bharat Bushan has written a letter to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Personnel and Training Department and UT Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, describing the incident as a “murder of democracy”.
Independent member Taranjit Singh justified the boycott, saying the administration must understand that DDC members are not a rubber stamp that will investigate whatever they want. Management must circulate a meeting agenda well in advance and elected members must be given due respect, he added.
President Bushan said he received a call from the planning director in the deputy commissioner’s office, asking if he would attend the meeting that was taking place to discuss proposals on the construction of the roads. “When I expressed my ignorance about the meeting, he told me that a section officer had called me a few days ago, but that they could not reach me because he was concerned in a meeting,” Bushan said. “I told him that, as president of the DDC, it was I who should call the meeting and not the deputy commissioner.”
Sources said Deputy Commissioner Sushma Chauhan also called Bushan to say that the letter was written following the instructions of the Secretary Commissioner, Department of Rural Development, to organize DDC meetings to discuss proposals for various highways under PMGSY-III.
It was never the administration’s intention to hurt the feelings of the DDC’s elected members, including the president, Chauhan said. The letter inviting them to participate in the meeting was written as the DDCs did not yet have a complete structure and the Commissioner-Secretary wanted to involve the newly elected members in the decision-making process, he added.
Incidentally, the newly elected members of the DDC, including the president and vice president, were sworn in by Deputy Commissioner Chauhan on December 28 and February 13.
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