Why in news:

• The government of India has recently claimed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir participated with enthusiasm in the Block Development Councils (BDC) and District Development Councils (DDCs) elections in the Union Territory.
• The elections to the Block Development Councils (BDC) and District Development Councils (DDCs) in Kashmir were conducted peacefully and successfully in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
• The Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha said that there was an enthusiastic participation of the people in the elections.
• The minister said that there was a turnout of 98.29 per cent in BDC elections and 51.42 per cent in the DDC elections.
• Notably, the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) swept the first-ever District Development Council (DDC) polls held in December 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370.
• A year before, in 2019, a high turnout of 98.29 per cent was witnessed despite the National Conference, Congress and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) boycotting the electoral exercise.
• The government said that it has taken several steps to boost the development of Jammu & Kashmir.
• During the year 2020-21, 1289 road construction works were completed at a cost of Rs 1638 crore.
• The construction work of 14500 km of roads has been completed so far under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, which has connected about 2000 places.
• Among other several developmental activities, an international flight from Srinagar to Sharjah was started on October 23.
• In addition, night flights from Jammu and Srinagar have also been started.
• Under the fast-track recruitment, 20,323 posts are being filled by the Jammu & Kashmir Services Selection Board.
• The 2119 selections for gazetted posts have been made by the Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission in various departments.

District Development Councils:

• A District Development Council (DDC), is a form of elected local government in Jammu and Kashmir facilitated by the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989.
• They haves been created under Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996.
• 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 is headed by an additional district development commissioner as chief executive officer and the chairperson of the council representing the district.
• 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.
  
  
   

Structure:

• The number of members has been specified at 14 elected members per district representing its rural areas, alongside the Members of Legislative Assembly chairpersons of all Block Development Councils within the district.
• The electoral process will allow for reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
• The Additional District Development Commissioner (or the Additional DC) of the district shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the District Development Council.
• The term of the DDC will be five years.