The District Development Council (DDC) whose elections were freshly held will manage the functioning of Halqa Panchayats and block development councils in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. These councils will be able to prepare and approve district plans.
The DDCs are also set to replace the District Planning and Development Boards in all districts across the region. These boards were implemented in erstwhile state in 1954 to look after formulation of periodic and annual plans for the development of a district.
Officials said that the DDCs will have the responsibilities to use the development aid or government funds for the development of an entire district and carry out schemes launched by the government of India. An additional district development commissioner (Additional D. C.) will head these councils as a chief executive officer and the chairperson of the council will represent the district. DDCs will work at district-level for a time period of five years and then fresh DDC elections will be held.
Earlier, the District Development Boards would plan, approve and implement schemes launched by the central government. The board was operated by an elected MP, MLA and an MLC and the deputy commissioner and a cabinet minister would lead it. The new system of DDCs will prompt chairman from an elected representative to head the council.
Each DDC will employ 14 directly-elected members and five standing committees will be organized to look after finance, development, public works, health and education and welfare departments. The Centre has amended the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, in order to set up District Development Councils (DDC). The DDCs, after this amendment, will act as a new unit of governance in J&K along with a District Planning Committee (DPC).
The official further informed that for every district, there will be District Planning Committee which will constitute
- Members of Parliament of that particular area,
- Members of the State Legislature of that area
- Chairperson of the District Development Council of the District
- Chairpersons of the town area committees/municipal committees of the district
- President of the municipal council/municipal corporation, if any
- the district development commissioner
- additional district development commissioner
The MP of that particular area will function as the chairperson of this committee.
The committee will lead the formulation of development programmes for the district, and will also prioritize various schemes. Other than that, it will also finalise the plan and non-plan budget for the district.
DDC will enjoy the powers to organize general meetings at a time period of three months to suggest a new plan or to process other pending plans. These councils will also supervise the activities of gram panchayats, Block Development Council and panchayat samiti in their region.
