HYDERABAD, March 25: Representatives of local bodies from 18 Indian states have said democracy has been strengthened in India at the grass-roots level.

They were speaking at a meet the press programme at the Hyderabad press club on Friday.

The 33-member delegation had arrived in Pakistan on March 14 to examine the local bodies’ system in Lahore, Islamabad, Sargodha, Jhang, Peshawar, Multan, Hyderabad and Karachi.

It also visited the local bodies’ training institute in Lala Musa.

There are 13 women and 20 men in the delegation, including 26 representatives of the LB institutions working on three tiers of Gram Panchayat (union council), Block Panchayat (taluka and town council) and Zila Parishad (district council).

The delegation’s visit has been arranged by the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Pattan Taraqiati Tanzim.

In her opening remarks, ISS coordinator Mrs Santosh Singh spoke of aims and objectives of the visit including study of local bodies (devolution plan) of Pakistan and to strengthen brotherly relations between people of the two countries.

She said members wanted to view local bodies quite closely so that some good aspects of it could be adopted in India.

“After five decades, time have come for the two brothers to hug each other and it is an important event,” she said.

“We can live peacefully as Pakistan and China or India and Sri Lanka are living without any controversy or confrontation”, she said.

“People should not be blamed as agents of RAW or the ISI if they visit the two countries”, she said.

She said democracy in India had become much stronger in the last five decades and no one including the army leadership had thought of reversing the democratic process.

She expressed the hope that even in future no one would even think of derailing it.

“In Pakistan democracy is getting strengthened and a new local bodies system of devolution plan has been introduced”, she said.

“It is difficult to give a comparative study of LB systems of Pakistan and India”, she said.

She disclosed that 29 departments including primary education, sanitation, health and water supply had been completely devolved in India.

A member of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and activist of the ruling Congress, Khan Abdul Ghani Khan, said that in recent local bodies’ elections the turnout was recorded at 27 per cent that in urban areas while it stood to 78 per cent in rural areas.

He said when rains and storm hit Srinagar Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi visited the area where the premier announced a multi-million rupee package for affected people.

“Muzafarabad-Srinagar bus service should ply twice in a week because thousands of people have obtained forms on both sides”, he said.

UC Nazim Sudha of Andhra Pradesh state, UC Nazim Mrs Vijay (Maharashtra), Town Nazim Satyanarayan Pradhan (Orissa), District Nazim Aparna Gupta (West Bengal), a former Lok Sabha member and a member of the ISS governing body, Narayan Swamy (Karnataka) and Abdul Saboor of Pattan also spoke on the occasion.

“The two countries should further improve their trade and cultural relations”, Mr Swamy said.