Early Times Report
Jammu, July 13: Though Kashmir division has merely 2.77 Lakhs more voters than Jammu division but when it comes to the number of seats in Legislative Assembly, it has 9 seats more than Jammu, exposing deliberate attempt to discriminate Jammu division in context of its representation.
In response to a question of two Member Parliament Asaduddin Owasi and Ajay Misra Teni during the ongoing budget session, the Ministry of Home Affairs has furnished the data according to which there are 37,33,111 voters in Jammu division while 40,10,971 voters in Kashmir division and 1,79,147 voters in Ladakh division.
The total difference between the voters of Jammu and the Kashmir division is merely 2,77,860 voters but when it comes to the number of seats in the State Legislative Assembly, the Kashmir division has nine more seats than Jammu division with Kashmir division having 46 seats and Jammu division having 37 seats.
The distribution of seats to the regions was done with reference to "Representation of Peoples Act, 1957", which takes into account factors such as population, geographical compactness, nature of terrain, facilities of communication beside some other.
"On account of population the Kashmir division has 6,907,622 souls while Jammu division has 5,350,811 souls. Kashmir has 15,56,811 more population than Jammu but when it comes to voters, it has merely 2.77 Lakhs more voters then such discriminatory distribution of seats in the Legislative assembly was done by those at the helm of powers, to keep power tilt towards them", a political analyst said.
In the Legislative Assembly, a total of 24 seats have been freeze for the areas under Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). "Over 10 Lakhs refugees from POJK have been settled in various areas of Jammu and the governor administration must take cognizance of the matter and de-freeze the seats the end up regional imbalance", POJK refugees said, adding that the de-limitation of the assembly seats is the need of hour. |
