Shadow Correspondent
Jammu,Jan, 02
Referring to repeated statements made by state and central BJP leaders after re-organization of the state on August 5 assuring early delimitation of Assembly constituency in J&K, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister regretted that all such utterances have also proved to be mere “Jumlas”. He reminisced that BJP had made tall claims of increasing the seats in the newly created J&K UT to 90 and enhancing the share of Jammu region through delimitation exercise. This assurance, like various other tall slogans of the BJP, has also been reduced to a mere chest thumping exercise with no initiative whatsoever taken by the govt to initiate the process, rued Singh.
“The process of delimitation in the UT can commence only after amendment of J&K Re-organi zation Act which has barred such process till the first casus after the year 2026”, said Singh. He pointed out that sec 63 of the JK Re-organization Act unambiguously stated that delimitation could not take place until the census figures for the year 2026 were published. Quoting the said provision in the Re-organization Act, Mr. Singh said that sec 63 stated that “Notwithstanding anything contained in sec 59 to 61, until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, it shall not be necessary to readjust the division of successor union territory of Jammu and Kashmir into assembly and Parliamentary constituencies…..”. He was addressing a press conference in Jammu today.
“The BJP however had repeatedly claimed to hold early delimitation which could be possible only by amending sec 63 of the J&K Re-organization Act. But the said provision had not been amended even in the last session of the Parliament. The loud mouthed dunderheads of BJP therefore appeared to be indulging in absurd histrionics without ascertaining the legal position on the subject. It is appalling to note that not only state but central BJP leadership was also cheating the people of J&K during the past five months in the name of delimitation without addressing the issue in the proper perspective”, deplored Singh.
Emphasising the urgency to initiate the Delimitation process on war footing, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that geographical area, topography, no. of voters, nature of terrain, inaccessibility and poor communication facilities are the factors which weigh heavily in favour of Jammu region and entitle it to a higher number of Assembly constituencies. Quoting the officials statistics, Mr. Singh said that it was ironical that Kashmir valley with a total area of 15953 sq. Kms had 46 Assembly seats as compared to 37 seats for Jammu region whose geographical areas was 26293 sq Kms. He further said that Kashmir region despite well developed communication links and a high road density has one Assembly segment for every 346 sq Kms area, but contrarily Jammu region with its highly tough terrain and acute accessibility problems and an extremely low road density has one assembly segment for every 710 sq Kms. He said that in terms of voters also there are wide disparities with constituencies in Kashmir like Gurez Assembly which has merely 16,000 voters against around two lakh voters of Jammu west and Gandhi Nagar constituencies. He said that Kishtwar region provided the most glaring example of discrimination as its had only two assembly seats with an area of 7824 sq Kms which was half of the area of entire Kashmir region. Likewise District Udhampur, Jammu, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch also were required to be given additional Assembly seats in view of their entitlement on the basis of prescribed norms governing delimitation.
He said that the centre and state should act promptly as per their assurances and the needful was required to be done at the earliest. He warned of a full scale agitation in case the govt. didn’t initiate the process for Delimitation of Assembly constituencies at the earliest in conformity with its repeated assurances.
Mr. Bansi Lal Sharma Advisor-JKNPP, Mr. Parshotam Parihar State Secretary Panthers Trade Union and Mr. Kunwar Bali Vice President (Jammu Province) of JKNPP were also present in the press conference.
