'If voted to power, BJP will implement 73rd PRI amendment Act'

BJP today said that if the party is voted to the power in Jammu and Kashmir, its government will implement the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act that seeks to provide Constitutional status to Panchayati Raj.
"If voted to power, the BJP government would implement the 73rd Amendment in Jammu and Kashmir as well," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told a public rally here.
"The 73rd Amendment was implemented in other states but was not implemented by the Jammu and Kashmir government under the garb of Article 370," he said.
"Under this amendment, Panchayats are directly getting money to carry out developmental work, whereas in Kashmir they (Panchayats) don't get the money," he said.

He promised that if voted to power, the BJP government would implement he 73rd Amendment in Jammu and Kashmir as well.
He said some people were trying to fight the Assembly elections on the communal lines, whereas BJP believed in taking along everyone.

Singh maintained that the issue of refugees from West Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was a serious and need to be resolved.
"People who have been living in the state for six decades are denied citizenship rights, which is sheer injustice. If voted to power, we will resolve their long pending issues as they also deserve equal rights and privileges," he said.

Singh said local party candidates have raised several demands for the area and he promised that after the elections he would discuss the issue with their elected representative as he expressed his willingness to visit the town again after the elections.
He said that in the past 12 years, a coalition of PDP, Congress, National Conference and Congress had ruled the state and it was a time to give BJP a chance.