March, 19 2005	Saturday	08 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 18: There was a consensus among the participants of an interactive session between the representatives of Indian local government and Pakistani civil society organizations (CSOs) here on Friday that people-to-people contact at the grass roots level would help strengthen ongoing peace process between the two countries. Ash Narain Roy, the coordinator of International Studies at the Institute of Social Sciences and head of the Indian delegation, praised the Pakistan government for introducing the local government system in the country and termed it a positive step towards devolution of powers at the grass roots level. Talking about the problems in the implementation of the devolution plan, Mr Roy said when the local government system was introduced in India, the government had to face great hardships in its implementation due to its opposition from the certain quarters.

He said there were still some pockets of resistance in India and there were apprehensions whether the system would sustain or not.

Mr Roy said when the Rajiv government introduced the local government and Panchayat system, it was even opposed by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). However, he said, now the BJP was not opposing the system. He said the Indian LG model was recognized in the world.

Mr Roy disclosed that in Bangalore, the proceedings of the Panchayat were telecast live through the cable TV network.

Shantanu Jha from Bengal said the people of India and Pakistan should prepare themselves to face the challenges of globalization.

In the question-answer session, Rajathi Samsuddin, a Muslim woman delegate from Tamil Nadu, narrated the ordeal she had to face in the elections. She said as a Muslim woman, she had to face resistance from both the Muslim and Hindu communities.

Vijayabai Prabhakar Patil, another women member of the delegation, said in India 33 per cent of the total seats of the local government units had been allocated for the women. She was of the view that for the implementation of the devolution plan in true spirit, it was a must to empower women as they could better understand the problems related education, drinking water and cleanliness. She claimed that women were playing a very active role in the Panchayat system in India.

Abdul Ghani Khan, the mayor of Srinagar, said local government elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir recently after a period of 27 years. However, he said there was 27 per cent turnout of voters in urban areas and 80 to 85 per cent in the rural areas.

C Narayanaswamy, the former member of the Indian parliament, expressed the hope that the governments of India and Pakistan would continue the ongoing peace process which was also in the interest of the common man of the two countries. He said in India, the local government was a provincial subject.

Pattan Coordinator Sarwar Bari said the visit of the Indians was aimed at creating a better understanding among the local level leadership of the two countries amid an increasing state-level focus on peace and cooperation.

While such exchanges, he said, would add to the ongoing peace process between the two countries, the primary objective of the visit remained an in-depth understanding of the visitors on the functioning of the district government system in Pakistan. He was of the view that such exchanges would encourage mutual learning of good governance practices at the local level in the two countries.

The Indian delegation is visiting Pakistan as part of an exchange programme arranged by the Pattan in collaboration with the Institute of Social Sciences, a New Delhi-based think-tank working on issues of good governance and “Panchayati Raj” in India.

The visit of the Indian delegation is a follow-up to an earlier study tour to India by a Pakistani delegation of district government representatives.

The members of the Indian delegation are from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.