Suhaib Bhat
Srinagar, Sept 29 (JKNS): The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed the Bill seeking to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000, with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah saying the proposed amendments were aimed at removing confusion rather than creating it.
Speaking in the Assembly, as per news agency JKNS, Omar said the government had no intention of creating confusion through the Bill and urged the House to pass the amendments.
“Speaker, there is no intention to create confusion with this Bill. Rather, it is to remove confusion,” he said.
The Chief Minister said one of the amendments sought to address confusion regarding the minimum number of elected members in a municipal body.
He said Section 10(1) clearly provided that no municipal body would be formed with fewer than seven members, while the existing table mentioned five members where the population was below 5,000.
“This will remove the confusion between 7 and 5,” Omar said, explaining that the provision referring to five members was being removed to maintain the minimum strength at seven.
On the role of the State Election Commission and officers involved in the election-related process, Omar said the government had not given itself additional powers through the amendments.
He said the original Act provided for the person chosen by direct election purposes to be the Deputy Commissioner, Chief Election Officer or any other officer, but the reference to the Chief Election Officer was being removed.
Omar said the work relating to dividing municipal areas, determining wards and fixing the territorial extent of each ward had to be carried out by the Deputy Commissioner.
He said that, in practice, such work had been carried out by the Deputy Commissioner and the DC’s team before elections.
“So to remove this confusion that tomorrow the DC will do it, the State Election Officer will do it, who will do it, we have removed the State Election Officer,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the amendments were limited to removing confusion regarding the minimum size of municipal bodies and the officer responsible for the delimitation-related work.
“I don’t want to do it. It is so simple,” he said, urging the House not to refer the matter to a committee.
“These are very minor amendments. According to these amendments, we have to remove the confusion. Please pass them so that we can move forward,” Omar said.
Responding to a question raised by Pathania regarding the government’s intention to hold Panchayat elections, Omar said the government intended to conduct the elections.
“Our intention is to hold a Panchayat election,” he said, adding that the elections would be held “at the right time.”
Omar also said the proposed amendments did not involve the government taking powers for itself and urged the Assembly to pass the Bill.
The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly subsequently passed the Bill, L.A. Bill No. 10 of 2026, seeking to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000. (JKNS)
