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

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

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 (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

. 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 central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

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.

Political Alliance

Government (149) *(99) *(50) Opposition (75) *(75) Others (54) *(26) *(12) *(8) *(3) *(2) *(2) *(1)

Background

District Development Councils were first introduced by the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

on 16 October 2020, fourteen months after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the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 (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

on 5 August 2019, leading the

government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

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. The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved by the Governor on 21 N ...

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, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

, health, education,

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

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

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, activists ...

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: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

decided to hold elections to these councils in order to bring more democracy at the

Panchayati raj The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

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 by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s in the

history of Jammu and Kashmir The history of Kashmir is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions, comprising the areas of Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Historically, Kashmir referred to the Kashmir Valley. Today, ...

were held from 28 November 2020 in eight phases across the two-hundred and eighty DDC constituencies.

People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is a political alliance between the several regional political parties in Jammu and Kashmir campaigning for autonomy for the region by restoring special status along with Article 35A of the ...

(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

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

DDC Chairman

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.

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 & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in the Indian union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Founded as the ''All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference'' by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam A ...

left the party and joined

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) is a political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India, founded by Altaf Bukhari in March 2020. History The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party was formed on 8 March 2020 by thirty one former members of the Jammu a ...

. Apart from this several independent DDC members also joined

before the voting for DDC Chairman had begun.

Composition

DDC works jointly with District Planning Committee (DPC) and Block Development Council from each district. 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 A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, ...

and also from the

built-up area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as city, cit ...

s where needed or approved by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

. 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. Since it works jointly with the other committees or councils, a jurisdiction's DDC consists of a

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, 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 a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

municipal committee Municipal or local governance refers to the third tier of governance in India, at the level of the municipality or urban local body. History Municipal governance in India in its current form has existed since the year 1664. In 1664, Fort Ko ...

, and the president of a

municipal corporation A 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 owne ...

DDC Chairpersons

Functions

* To formulate, prepare, approve a plan or

capital expenditure Capital expenditure or capital expense (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 a capital expenditure ...

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 panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

s, Block Development Council and

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

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

development aid Development aid is a type of aid, foreign/international/overseas aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political International development, development of developing countries. Closely-rel ...

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. A guideline aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. Guidelines may be issued by and used by any organization (governmental or pri ...

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

s and rules"