KD NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, Sep 12: The Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan (RGPRS), Congress J&K, on Saturday intensified its grassroots outreach campaign, calling for the early conduct of Panchayat and Urban Local Body (ULB) elections in Jammu & Kashmir and underlining the need to strengthen elected institutions at the village and urban levels.
The RGPRS held a press conference at the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Headquarters in Srinagar as part of the ongoing “Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan”, an organisational campaign aimed at revitalising the Congress structure at the grassroots and strengthening its engagement with people across Panchayats, villages and local communities.
Addressing journalists, Thakur Hirapal Singh, In-charge RGPRS J&K, said the campaign was intended to take the organisation beyond conventional political activity and establish a stronger connect between Congress workers and people at the grassroots. He said Panchayats and villages remained crucial to understanding the concerns of ordinary citizens and ensuring that local issues found an effective platform.
He emphasised that strengthening the organisational network at the grassroots was central to the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan, with the focus being on empowering party workers, expanding their engagement with local communities and building a more responsive organisational structure across Jammu & Kashmir.
In-charge Congress Headquarters Kashmir Abid Kashmiri was also present during the interaction with the media.
A major focus of the press conference was the demand for the early holding of Panchayat and Urban Local Body elections in Jammu & Kashmir.
Er. Mudasir Lolabi, Chairman, Congress RGPRS J&K, strongly advocated the conduct of the elections at the earliest, maintaining that elected local institutions constitute an essential pillar of grassroots democracy. He stressed that regular elections to Panchayats and ULBs were necessary to ensure people’s participation in decision-making and provide communities with elected representatives capable of taking up issues concerning their respective areas.
Lolabi said local governments have a direct bearing on everyday public concerns, including roads, drainage, sanitation, water supply, waste management, local infrastructure and other development-related matters. According to him, a functioning system of elected local bodies enables such issues to be raised through established democratic institutions and allows people to participate more directly in determining local development priorities.
The RGPRS leadership maintained that Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local Bodies are not merely administrative structures but important instruments for decentralising governance and bringing decision-making closer to the people. The organisation argued that empowered local representatives can provide a stronger institutional mechanism for identifying area-specific requirements and following up on developmental priorities.
The Congress leaders also linked the demand for early local body elections with the broader objective of strengthening democratic participation in Jammu & Kashmir. They stressed that an active grassroots political and institutional framework was essential for ensuring greater public involvement in governance and for creating sustained engagement between elected representatives and local communities.
District Congress Committee President, Srinagar, Dr. Audil Farooq, and Congress leader Ankur Dogra were also present at the press conference.
The leaders said the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan would continue across different parts of Jammu & Kashmir, with particular emphasis on strengthening the party’s grassroots network and increasing interaction with workers and residents in Panchayats and villages.
The campaign, they said, would seek to create a more active and people-centric organisational structure by encouraging greater participation of grassroots workers and improving their engagement with issues affecting local communities.
The press conference also provided the RGPRS leadership an opportunity to reiterate its broader political emphasis on grassroots democracy, local participation and institutional empowerment. The organisation maintained that stronger local institutions could play an important role in translating public aspirations into development priorities and ensuring that local concerns receive sustained attention.
The RGPRS leadership said the organisational campaign would remain focused on building a stronger connection with people at the grassroots and strengthening the Congress presence across Jammu & Kashmir through continued interaction with workers, Panchayat-level representatives and local communities.
