Jammu,June 10 : Seeking early delimitation of Assembly constituencies in the state as assured by the centre as well as state govt in the Agenda of Alliance, a strong contingent of Panther activists led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and other leaders staged a vociferous protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground Jammu today. The angry protestors while raising anti- govt slogans torched the effigy of the BJP accusing the Saffron party of dilly dallying over the issue of delimitation under pressure of the Kashmir centric leaders.
Addressing the media, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that it was high time that central govt initiated measures for removal of regional imbalances and end of regional bias in conformity with its slogans and elections time promises. He said that delimitation of constituencies which formed a part of the BJP agenda deserved a priority consideration with its passage in the current Parliament session itself so as to pave way for the Delimitation exercise. He said that the exercise of delimitation involved a passage of a bill by amendment of Sec 47 of the state constitution, followed by constitution of Delimitation commission as envisaged under the Representation of Peoples Act with ultimate delimitation process involving delimitation of constituencies, re-adjustment of territorial boundaries, rotation of reserved seats, identification of seats for fresh reservation, reservation of seats as proposed for women etc. Flaying the neglect of the erstwhile BJP govt to take up the Jammu related issues for implementation, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that assurances for delimitation and for ending regional bias were not only doled out by the central BJP leadership but the BJP’s vision document released during Elections also categorically promised early delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K so as to ensure justice to Jammu region with 33% seats reserved for women, five seats for displaced persons of POJK out of 24 seats reserved for them under sec 48 of the State constitution and 3 seats for Kashmir migrants out of 46 seats earmarked for Kashmir. Cautioning the BJP that these promises could only be fulfilled by holding immediate delimitation, he said that any retreat from its bold assertions and professed promises would evoke stiff resistance from the people of Jammu region. He warned the BJP to desist from succumbing to the dictates of its Kashmir based parties on crucial issues as any further surrender on its core agenda could trigger a civil unrest in Jammu region which would prove fatal and cataclysmic for the present saffron party.
Emphasizing the urgency to initiate the Delimitation process on war footing, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that geographical area, topography, 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 official 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 it 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 it was high time that the BJP led centre govt should take the decision forthwith to end the political and economic subjugation of Jammu Pradesh. He warned of a full scale agitation in case the coalition govt. failed to initiate the process for Delimitation at the earliest.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Pushpinder Singh, Gagan Pratap, Capt. Anil Gour, Bhavishan Singh, Surinder Chouhan, Khajoor Singh, Adv. Sohan Singh, Rampaul Sharma, Jagdish Dogra, Rashpaul Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Rakesh Verma besides others.
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