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| Prof Gupta bats for delimitation of Assembly constituencies | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 7: The former Union Minister, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta is of the view that no regional autonomy in J&K would be fruitful unless there is fair delimitation of the Assembly Constituencies and all the three regions of the State are ensured due representation by bringing an end to manifested domination of one region over the other.
This was stated by Prof. Gupta in a statement while commenting upon the various slogans being raised by the alleged ever changing colors of politicians of Kashmir and their cronies else where. He said that regional discrimination is an old malady and had because of many complex problems but for the communal and sectarian mind set of some Kashmir leaders despite their masquerading as secular and having taken the oath to be judicious to all the people and the regions.
The statement pointed out that when the Indian Constitution was being framed, in the constituent Assembly at the centre the three top leaders of National Conference viz. Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, Mirza Afzal Beigh and Moulana Masoodi represented Kashmir, and they picked up one Moti Ram Biagra to represent Jammu. None was from Ladakh. These State "representatives" got listed the name of this State just as Kashmir and Kashmiri as language. It is a different matter that later on the name was amended as J&K at the intervention of some visionary members of the drafting committee.
The Maharaja Hari Singh while signing the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947, had noted the full name of his State as Jammu, Kashmir, Gilgit, Ladakh and Tibet Hai. Tracing out the history of elections in J&K after the end of dynastic rule of the Maharajas, Prof. Gupta recalled that in absence of the election Commission of India, in 1951, the delimitation of Assembly constituencies , was conducted under the guidance of the NC leader and a minister of the Interim Government Mirza Afzal Beigh.
In the 100 member Assembly 25 seats were kept vacant for Pak held areas. And in the remaining 75 member body, 43 seats were allotted to Kashmir Valley, 30 to Jammu and just two to Ladakh although there was almost equal population of Kashmir and Jammu regions. And the geographical area of Jammu is almost double to that of Kashmir and moreso, the valley forms just 1/8th of the State.
He also recalled that in the 1951 Assembly elections, out of 75 members as many as 71 were declared elected "unopposed" and there was polling for just four and these four were also that of NC. |
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