BDC poll: Living in constant fear, say panches

Sumayyah Qureshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 8

The countdown has begun for Block Development Council (BDC) elections, which are scheduled for October 24, but sarpanches and panches are living in an atmosphere of fear.

At a hotel in Srinagar, where many panchayat members, including sarpanches and panches, have been given accommodation by the government, fear follows them even when they have got police protection and the hotel is under constant CCTV surveillance.

Panchayat members said they had not been able to go back to their villages for the past many months. “The threat is there. We do not move around much even in Srinagar,” said Mehraj-u-Din Rather, a panch from Sangrama in Baramulla.

Some of the panches and sarpanches said they visited their villages to meet families but did not spend much time there.

“We are here because we want to save our lives,” said a sarpanch, Mubeena Begum, also from Baramulla.

A woman panch from Rafiabaad in Baramulla, Misra, said she had been living in the hotel for the past nine months. “I left home last year after a grenade was lobbed at my house. I am not even able to visit my sick relatives out of fear,” Misra said, adding that she prefers to stay in the hotel as she doesn’t want her neighbours in the village to get affected because of her.

She, however, said she would travel to her district to fill the form for the BDC elections.

The need to go back to their villages and work at the grass-roots level gets a further setback when any panchayat member is attacked.

“The attack on a panch in Anantnag on Sunday has yet again created tension among us. It happens each time an attack happens on panchayat members. There is no peace of mind,” Mubeena said, adding, “our future is ruined but we don’t want this to happen to our children”.

“Even if we are given security in our villages, the fear won’t go. The situation should be normal for us to return to our villages,” she said.

Panchayat members said they had not been able to do any work in the villages as the funds had not been released to them because of the situation and blockade of communication networks.