District Development Council

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]

District Development Council
Type
Type
Development Council
Structure
Political groups
Elections
Last election
2020

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]

Background

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by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 16 October 2020, fourteen months after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the parliament of India on 5 August 2019, leading the government of India to limit the powers of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and to run the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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

2020 Jammu & Kashmir DDC Election Detailed Results
Alliance Party Seats +/-  %
PAGD JKNC 67 Increase 67
JKPDP 27 Increase 27
JKPC 8 Increase 8
CPI(M) 5 Increase 5
JKPM 3 Increase 3
JKANC 0 Steady
NDA BJP 75 Increase 75
UPA INC 26 Increase 26
None Independents 50 Increase 50
JKAP 12 Increase 12
JKPDF(S) 2 Increase 2
JKNPP 2 Increase 2
BSP 1 Increase 1
Total 278/280 Increase 278 51.76%

Some of the opposition's leaders of Jammu and Kashmir were arrested under detention laws prior to the elections.[6]

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.[7]

DDC Chairman

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 06 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)[8]

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.

Composition

DDC works jointly with District Planning Committee (DPC) and Block Development Council from each district. 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.[9]

Since it works 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.[9]

DDC Chairpersons
S.No District Chairperson Vice-Chairperson Political Party Alliance
1 Kulgam Mohd Afzal Parrey[10][11] 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.)
19 Rajouri Naseem Liaqat Peoples Democratic Party

Members

Source:[12]

Kashmir Division

DDC Kulgam[13]

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[14]

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[15]
S.No 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

Functions

References
  1. "What are District Development Councils (DDCs)? – Civilsdaily". www.civilsdaily.com.
  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. Rashid, Hakeem Irfan. "ET in the classroom: All about J&K's District Development Council polls" – via The Economic Times.
  4. "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.
  5. "Sajad Lone's People's Conference exits Farooq Abdullah-led Gupkar alliance". frontline.thehindu.com. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  6. Fareed, Rifat. "Key Kashmir political leaders arrested by India since August 5". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  7. "counting deferred in 2 seats as candidates belong to PoK". www.timesnownews.com. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  8. SHAH, SYED AMJAD. "DDC chairpersons placed above MPs, MLAs in status". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  9. "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.
  10. Desk, GK Web. "CPI (M) candidate unanimously elected maiden DDC Chairperson in south Kashmir's Kulgam". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  11. Malik, Saqib. "Apni Party wins DDCs Srinagar, Shopian; PAGD gets Kulgam". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  12. "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.
  13. "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.
  14. 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.
  15. "DDC elections: Independents backed by NC, Apni Party win in Kupwara & Bandipora". Hindustan Times. 9 December 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2023.

Further reading
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