The People's Democratic Party today alleged both the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government were paying only lip service to the cause of empowerment of Panchayats.

Both were paying "hypocritical role" in denying powers to Panchayats and in deactivating urban local bodies, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said in a statement here.

The year-old Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir had been turned into a mere publicity reference, he said.

"Both the Centre and the state government have been paying only lip service to the cause of empowerment and in the process have robbed the institutions of self-governance of their credibility," he said.

The Congress was instrumental in empowering Panchayats in rest of the country but was resorting to "double standards" by becoming a part of the resistance to change in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP patron said.

The ruling coalition partners in the state were engaged in a mock war of words over the devolution of powers to Panchayats, he alleged.

Both the Congress and the National Conference were reluctant to share power at the village-level with the people who were stakeholders in the development process, Sayeed said.

"The coalition partners are subverting the institutions for petty partisan interests," he said.

Referring to delay in holding elections to urban local bodies, Sayeed said spurious reasons were bandied about to continue the status quo.