Democracy for the first time in J&K’: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday criticised the Congress party, saying that the principal opposition party did not take any substantial step to empower Panchayati Raj institutions in India for decades.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday criticised the Congress party, saying that the principal opposition party did not take any substantial step to empower Panchayati Raj institutions in India for decades.

Addressing the two-day regional Panchayati Raj council held in Haryana’s Surajkund on Monday, Modi gave the example of Jammu and Kashmir, saying that democracy has been established in the union territory at the ground level since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

“During the Congress’s regime, there were no concrete efforts made to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions. Maximum work was limited to figures and documents. Jammu and Kashmir is the biggest example. In the year 2019, after Article 370 was abrogated, it was for the first time that elections were held there from the gram panchayat (village) level to the zila (district) level, in which, over 33,000 local public representatives have been elected,” Modi said in a virtual address.

He added, “For the first time, democracy has been established on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir.”