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| HM committee to J&K Govt: Reserve 10 seats for refugees | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 5: A Rajya Sabha committee of Union Home Ministry has sought reservation of 2 seats in the legislative assembly for West Pakistan refugees and defreezing of 8 seats out of 24 which are designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that lie in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in favour of refugees of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) living in Jammu.
The committee has, thus sought addition of 10 more seats in the 37 seats of Jammu region. This would take the number of seats in Jammu region to 47 i.e. one more than the number of legislative assembly seats in Kashmir region. Refugees of West Pakistan and Displaced Persons of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) are mostly settled in various districts of Jammu region.
So, reservation of seats for either West Pakistan Refugees or displaced people from POK would directly lead to increase in the seats of Jammu region. To be more, precise, the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in its 183rd report on "Problems being faced by refugees and displaced persons in J&K" which was presented by the committee Chairman. Bhattacharya in Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2014 has demanded that two seats in the Legislative Assembly and one seat in Legislative Council be reserved for West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs).
Committee has stressed that citizens of India must have the right to elect and get elected in all representative bodies to enhance the strength of democracy. Committee has recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs must pursue with the state government to examine the issue of reservation of seats in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of the State for West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs), and if necessary, may move for necessary amendment to J&K Constitution.
Referring to the Displaced Persons of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), the committee has said that the representatives of the affected persons were of the view that 8 seats out of 24 Legislative Assembly seats which are designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that lie in Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir in favour of them should be defreezed. Union Home Affairs ministry informed the committee that this needs amendment in state constitution.
On this, the committee advised the Union Home Ministry to take up the matter of defreezing of 8 seats for POJK DPs with the state government of J&K keeping in view the problems being faced by DPs. It further asked the Union Home Ministry to impress upon the state government to make amendments in the state constitution, if necessary, at the earliest.
The committee has asked the Union Home Ministry to take up the issue with Jammu and Kashmir government on priority basis and get the same resolved within shortest possible time. It needs to be mentioned here that in the wake of Pakistani aggression in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, mass exodus of population from Pak occupied area of Kashmir (POK) took place. And as per the available data of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs; 31,619 families were registered with the Rehabilitation Organisation, out of which 26,319 families opted to settle down within the state itself.
5,300 families have settled outside the state of J&K (Delhi 1,901 families, Maharashtra 123 families, Rajasthan 495 families and other States 2,781 families). Out of 26,319 families, around 22,719 families opted to settle in rural areas, whereas 3,600 families settled in urban areas. However, no claims for compensation in lieu of the properties left behind by these displaced persons were invited by the Government of India as POJK was treated as an integral part of India.
The Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954 and the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 are not applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. |
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