A District Development Council (abbreviated as DDC) is a form of elected local government in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

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 The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...

. 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. Each council have additional district development commissioner (Additional D. C.) as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

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.

Functions

* To formulate, prepare, approve a plan or

capital expenditure Capital expenditure or capital expense (abbreviated capex, CAPEX, or CapEx) is the money an organization or corporate entity spends to buy, maintain, or improve its fixed assets, such as buildings, vehicles, equipment, or land. It is considered ...

for respective districts * To organize general meetings after every three months designed to suggest a new plan or to process pending plans * To supervise the activities of gram panchayats, Block Development Council and

panchayat samiti Panchayat samiti or block panchayat is a rural local government ( panchayat) body at the intermediate tehsil (taluka/mandal) or block level in India. It works for the villages of the tehsil that together are called a development block. It has b ...

in its own jurisdiction at district-level * To utilize the

development aid Development aid (or development cooperation) is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political International development, development of developing countries. It is distinguishe ...

or government funds for the development of an entire district * To implement the schemes sponsored by the government of India * To receive the district development plans compiled and formulated by the Block Development Council and submit it to the District Planning Committee "for adherence to the government

guideline A guideline is a statement by which to determine a course of action. It aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. They may be issued by and used by any organization (governmental or private) to make ...

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

s and rules"

Composition

A council consists of fourteen members elected from the

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically describ ...

and also from the

built-up area Buildup may refer to: * Atomic buildup In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, the Aufbau principle (, from ), also called the Aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons first fill Electron shell#Subshells, sub ...

s where needed or approved by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

. 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. DDCs work jointly with District Planning Committee (DPC) and Block Development Council from each district. Since they work 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 In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

municipal committee A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counci ...

, and the president of a

municipal corporation Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally o ...

Creation and elections

District Development Councils were first introduced by the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

on 16 October 2020, fourteen months after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the

parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

on 5 August 2019, leading the

government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

to limit the powers of the

Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha, is the legislature of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Prior to 2019, the State of Jammu and Kashmir had a bicameral legislature with a ...

and to run the union territory under the union government's rule administered by a

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

. DDCs supervises, implement, sponsor and prepare for five main fields such as

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

, health, education,

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

and development intended to ensure the

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...

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

. In 2020,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

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

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s 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. 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. Some of the opposition's leaders of Jammu and Kashmir were arrested under detention laws prior to the elections. 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 Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

. An Apni Party backed Independent won in one, while JKNC backed Independent won in the other seat.

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 The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir union territory and Ladakh. Founded as the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference by ...

left the party and joined

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary source ...

. Apart from this several independent DDC members also joined

before the voting for DDC Chairman had begun.

DDC Chairpersons

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 6 April 2021

Government of Jammu and Kashmir The Government of Jammu and Kashmir is the principal administrative authority responsible for the governance of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Established on 5 March 1948 as the Government of Princely state of Jammu and Ka ...

issued fresh warrant of precedence in which DDC Chairpersos were placed as equivalent to

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

with in their respective territorial jurisdictions, above Member of parliament,

Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district (constituency) to the legislature of States of India, State government in the Indian system of government. From each constituency, the ...

and

Chief secretary (India) The Chief Secretary is the highest-ranking executive official and civil servant of the government of an Indian state. The Chief Secretary is the ''ex-officio'' head of the state Civil Services Board, the State Secretariat, the state cadre Indi ...

and Vice Chairpersons equivalent to Administrative Secretaries within their respective jurisdictions in

Jammu and Kashmir (union territory) Jammu and Kashmir ( J&K) is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan sin ...

Membership by council

Source:

Kashmir Division

Kulgam DDC

DDC Kulgam * DDC Chairperson Kulgam: Mohd Afzal Parrey (

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...

) * Vice-chairperson: Shazia Jan ( JKNC)

Anantnag DDC

* Chairperson: Yousuf Gorsi ( JKNC) * Vice-chairpwrson: Javaid Ahmad ( JKPDP)

Budgam DDC

Source: *DDC Chairperson Budgam: Nazir Ahmad Khan (IND) * Vice-chairperson: Nazir Ahmad Jahara ( JKNC)

Bandipora DDC

*DDC Chairperson Bandipora: Abdul Gani Bhat ( JKNC) * Vice-chairperson: Kaunser Shafeeq ( JKPDP)

Pulwama DDC

*DDC Chairperson Pulwama: Syed Abdul Bari Andrabi ( JKPDP) * Vice-chairperson: Mukhtar Ahmad Bandh ( JKNC)