District Development Council

District Development Councils
Type
Type	Development Councils of the Districts of Jammu and Kashmir

A District Development Council (abbreviated as DDC) is a form of elected local government in Jammu and Kashmir facilitated by the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 and created under Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Rule, 1996 of the constitution of India. They are primarily aimed at electing the members from the rural and urban areas for the District Planning Committee and the councils themselves with fourteen members from each district for speedy development and economic upliftment. ^{[1] [2]}

Each council have additional district development commissioner (Additional D. C.) as chief executive officer and the chairperson of the council representing the district. It works at district-level for the term of five years until new DDC elections are announced or held. It also replaced District Planning and Development Boards (DDB), which was implemented in erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1954 to perform its functions such as formulation of periodic and annual plans for the development of a district. ^[1]

Functions

• To formulate, prepare, approve a plan or capital expenditure for respective districts
• To organize general meetings after every three months designed to suggest a new plan or to process pending plans
• To supervise the activities of gram panchayats, Block Development Council and panchayat samiti in its own jurisdiction at district-level
• To utilize the development aid or government funds for the development of an entire district
• To implement the schemes sponsored by the government of India
• To receive the district development plans compiled and formulated by the Block Development Council and submit it to the District Planning Committee "for adherence to the government guidelines, norms and rules" ^[3]

Composition

A council consists of fourteen members elected from the countryside and also from the built-up areas where needed or approved by the Election Commission of India. Its chairperson and vice-chairperson are selected by its members; however all the elected members, including chairperson and vice-chairperson are literally headed by a government revenue officer such as additional district development commissioner. ^[3]

DDCs work jointly with District Planning Committee (DPC) and Block Development Council from each district. Since they work jointly with the other committees or councils, a jurisdiction's DDC consists of a member of parliament, member of state legislator, chairperson of town hall or municipal committee, and the president of a municipal corporation. ^[4]

Creation and elections

District Development Councils were first introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 16 October 2020, fourteen months after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the parliament of India on 5 August 2019, leading the government of India to limit the powers of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and to run the union territory under the union government's rule administered by a lieutenant governor. ^[5]

DDCs supervises, implement, sponsor and prepare for five main fields such as welfare, health, education, finance, public works and development intended to ensure the community development of a representing district.

DDCs before 2020 elections

DDCs have been existent in Jammu and Kashmir before the 2020 elections in the form of District Planning and Development Boards, but their members were not elected and rather selected by the state government of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2020, Government of India decided to hold elections to these councils in order to bring more democracy at the Panchayati raj level and have its members more accountable to the people.

2020 DDC elections

The first DDC elections in the history of Jammu and Kashmir were held from 28 November 2020 in eight phases across the two-hundred and eighty DDC constituencies. People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) won 110 seats while BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 75 seats. ^[6] But later on 19 January, the JKPC left the PAGD, which brought down the PAGD's seat tally from 110 to 102, as JKPC had won 8 seats. ^[7]

2020 Jammu & Kashmir DDC Election Detailed Results

Alliance		Party		Seats	%
	PAGD		JKNC	67
			JKPDP	27
			JKPC	8
			CPI(M)	5
			JKPM	3
			JKANC	0
	NDA		BJP	75
	UPA		INC	26
None			Independents	50
			JKAP	12
			JKPDF(S)	2
			JKNPP	2
			BSP	1
Total				278/280	51.76%

Some of the opposition's leaders of Jammu and Kashmir were arrested under detention laws prior to the elections. ^[8]

The counting of votes in two DDC constituencies has been kept in abeyance as two of the candidates in them are reportedly from Pakistani administered Kashmir. Apni Party backed Indepedent won in one, while JKNC backed Independent won in the other seat. ^{[9] [10]}

Defections of elected candidates

The elected members of DDC defected from one party to another as the process of voting for the post of DDC Chairman and Vice-Chairman began. 2 elected DDC members from Jammu & Kashmir National Conference left the party and joined Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party. Apart from this several independent DDC members also joined Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party before the voting for DDC Chairman had begun.

DDC Chairpersons

Every DDC consists of a DDC Chairman and Vice-Chairman. The elections for this post in each DDC began from 6 February 2021 till 20 February 2021. Since each DDC has 14 members, the winning candidate requires the support of minimum 8 DDC members in that council. The election for this post also requires quorum which is minimum of 10 members for the election to take place. On 6 April 2021 Government of Jammu and Kashmir issued fresh warrant of precedence in which DDC Chairpersos were placed as equivalent to Minister of State with in their respective territorial jurisdictions, above Member of parliament, Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) and Chief secretary (India) and Vice Chairpersons equivalent to Administrative Secretaries within their respective jurisdictions in Jammu and Kashmir (union territory) ^[11]

S.No	District	Chairperson	Vice-Chairperson	Political Party	Alliance
1	Kulgam	Mohd Afzal Parrey [12] [13]	Shazia Jan	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration
2	Srinagar	Aftab Malik	Bilal Ahmad	Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party	None
3	Shopian	Bilquees Bano	Irfan Manhas
4	Jammu	Bharat Bhushan	Suraj Singh	Bharatiya Janata Party
5	Kathua	Col (Retd) Mahan Singh	Raghunandan Singh
6	Doda	Dhananter Singh Kotwal	Sangeeta Bhagat
7	Reasi	Saraf Singh Nag	Sajra Qadir (IND.)
8	Samba	Keshav Dutt Sharma	Balwan Singh
9	Udhampur	Lal Chand Bhagat	Juhi Singh Manhas
10	Budgam	Nazir Ahmad Khan	Nazir Jahara (NC)	Independent politician
11	Poonch	Tazeem Akhter	Md Ashfaq
12	Baramulla	Safina Baig	Sanauleah Parray	Jammu & Kashmir People's Conference
13	Kupwara	Irfan Panditpuri	Haji Md Farooq
14	Kishtwar	Pooja Thakur	Saima Parveen (INC)	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference	People's Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration
15	Ganderbal	Nuzhat Ishfaq	Bilal Sheikh (PDP)
16	Anantnag	Yousuf Gorsi	Javaidhmad (PDP)
17	Bandipore	Ahada Bano	Rabia Hamid (IND.)
18	Rajouri	Naseem Liaqat (PDP)	Shabir Khan	Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party
19	Pulwama	Syed Abdul Bari Andrabi (PDP)	Mukhtar Ahmad Bandh (JKNC)

Membership by council

Source: ^[14]

Kashmir Division

Kulgam DDC

DDC Kulgam ^[15]

• DDC Chairperson Kulgam: Mohd Afzal Parrey (CPI(M))
• Vice-chairperson: Shazia Jan (JKNC)

S.No	Party	Alliance	No. of Members
1.	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	PAGD	5
2.	JKNC		5
3.	JKPDP		2
4.	Indian National Congress	United Progressive Alliance	2
Total			14

Anantnag DDC

• Chairperson: Yousuf Gorsi (JKNC)
• Vice-chairpwrson: Javaid Ahmad (JKPDP)

S.No	Party	Alliance	No. of Members
1.	INC	UPA	2
2.	JKNC	PAGD	6
3.	JKPDP		4
4.	Independent		2
Total			14

Budgam DDC

Source: ^[16]

• DDC Chairperson Budgam: Nazir Ahmad Khan (IND)
• Vice-chairperson: Nazir Ahmad Jahara (JKNC)

S.No	Party	Alliance	No. of Members
1.	JKPDP	PAGD	1
2.	JKNC		8
3.	JKPDF		2
4.	JKPM		1
5.	Independent		2
Total			14

Bandipora DDC

• DDC Chairperson Bandipora: Abdul Gani Bhat (JKNC)
• Vice-chairperson: Kaunser Shafeeq (JKPDP)

S.No [17]	Party	Alliance	No. of Members
1.	INC	UPA	1
2.	BJP	NDA	1
3.	JKNC	PAGD	4
4.	JKPDP		2
5.	JKAP		1
6.	JKPM		1
7.	Independent		4
Totak			14

Pulwama DDC

• DDC Chairperson Pulwama: Syed Abdul Bari Andrabi (JKPDP)
• Vice-chairperson: Mukhtar Ahmad Bandh (JKNC)

S.No	Party	Alliance	No. of Members
1.	INC	UPA
2.	BJP	NDA	1
3.	JKNC	PAGD	2
4.	JKPDP		8
5.	JKAP
6.	JKPM
7.	Independent		4
Totak			14

References

1. "What are District Development Councils (DDCs)? – Civilsdaily". www.civilsdaily.com. 20 October 2020.
2. Staff Writer (26 December 2020). "J-K people came out and voted for development: PM Modi on DDC elections". mint. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
3. "District Development Councils (DDC): Why parties think this new layer of governance will kill politics in J&K". The Indian Express. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
4. name="indianexpress.com"/
5. Rashid, Hakeem Irfan (14 November 2020). "ET in the classroom: All about J&K's District Development Council polls". The Economic Times.
6. "DDC elections results | J&K DDC poll result: PAGD wins 110 seats, BJP 75; counting deferred in 2 seats as candidates belong to PoK". Times Now News. 23 December 2020. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
7. "Sajad Lone's People's Conference exits Farooq Abdullah-led Gupkar alliance". frontline.thehindu.com. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
8. Fareed, Rifat. "Key Kashmir political leaders arrested by India since August 5". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
9. Rashid, Hakeem Irfan (9 December 2022). "National Conference, Apni party backed independent candidates win DDC by elections in northern Kashmir". The Economic Times. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 9 July 2024.
10. "counting deferred in 2 seats as candidates belong to PoK". www.timesnownews.com. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
11. SHAH, SYED AMJAD (6 April 2021). "DDC chairpersons placed above MPs, MLAs in status". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
12. Desk, GK Web (6 February 2021). "CPI (M) candidate unanimously elected maiden DDC Chairperson in south Kashmir's Kulgam". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
13. Malik, Saqib (6 February 2021). "Apni Party wins DDCs Srinagar, Shopian; PAGD gets Kulgam". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
14. "J-K DDC Election Results 2020: PAGD wins big with 110 seats, BJP single largest party with 75 seats; check final list of winners". Jagran English. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
15. "J-K DDC Election Results 2020: PAGD wins big with 110 seats, BJP single largest party with 75 seats; check final list of winners". English Jagran. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
16. Khan, Irshad (23 December 2020). "DDC Poll results: NC wins eight of 14 seats in Budgam; PDF and independents bag 2 seats each". Kashmir Reader. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
17. "DDC elections: Independents backed by NC, Apni Party win in Kupwara & Bandipora". Hindustan Times. 9 December 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2023.

Further reading

• "J&K goes to DDC polls, first time after Article 370 abrogation. All you need to know". Hindustan Times. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.