December 29, 2014
J&K delegation in Bengal to study State’s Panchayati Raj Model
A 30-member team comprising panchayat members from Jammu and Kashmir was in the city on Sunday to meet state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee to take advice on how to execute different panchayat-related initiatives in their state that the minister successfully executed in West Bengal.
“At present Bengal is perhaps the best model of panchayati raj in the country so we have decided to meet the panchayat minister to seek his help. Advice he shared can immensely help us recover from disaster we faced after the flood in September,” said Narendra Sharma, the sarpanch (panchayat pradhan) of Kurd village under the Udhampur district in Jammu.
J&K has close to 4,000 panchayats. But, unlike in Bengal, the state does not hold elections at regular intervals because of security reasons.
