'Govt has repeatedly announced of civic polls to no avail'

"The announcements for early local bodies elections are being repeatedly made since January, 2010, without any follow up action and then it remains unexplained as to why the earlier announcement was not honoured and implemented," JKNPP working chairman and MLA, Harsh Dev Singh, said.

"The recent statements made by the Chief Minister regarding early elections have only evoked cynicism as neither the delimitation of wards has been undertaken nor the summary revision of Electoral Rolls has been conducted," he alleged.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had in August directed to take steps necessary for holding elections to Block Development Councils and Urban Local Bodies by December this year.

The elections to urban local bodies were due in early 2010 and have been "inordinately and inexplicably delayed by around thirty months with the government coming out with lame excuses on several occasions," he also alleged.

The delay in holding the elections has translated into loss of hundreds of crores to the state in central assistance meant for development of urban areas.

Since representative urban bodies in the state have not been constituted, this has further enabled the government to rule and administer these areas by proxy, Singh alleged.