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| No bold decision | | | The decision taken by the state cabinet in its meeting yesterday and
announced to the media by none other than the Chief Minister Ghulam
Nabi Azad may be a landmark in the history of J&K. By deciding to
create 8 more districts, four each in Jammu and Kashmir divisions as
well as 3 more sub districts and 13 new tehsils, a further step has
been taken to make the governance reach closer to the people, living
in far off areas. It will facilitate the common man to reach to the
administration, for redressal of their grievances and solving of their
problems. Similarly, by deciding to appoint new delimitation
commission for carving out 25% more assembly seats, to be divided
equally for Jammu and Kashmir divisions, more number of politicians
will find fulfillment of their aspiration to enter the legislature,
while the electorates will have their elected representatives nearer
to knock at his door, with their problems. Yet to call this historic
decision as the implementation of Common Minimum Programme of the
coalition government is totally wrong. The real spirit of these points
incorporated in the CMP was to give justice to Jammu division and
equitable share in the power structure as well as in governance. This
objective will remain elusive even after the implementation of the
latest cabinet decision of carving out 8 more districts as well as
appointment of fresh delimitation commission, with a rider oj it that
out of 25% i.e. 21 new assembly constituencies to be carved out, half
will be from Kashmir division and other half from Jammu.
The recommendations of Wazir Commission for carving out three more
districts for Jammu and only one more for Kashmir division has been
circumvented, surrendering before the pressure from Kashmiri lobby,
who had been strongly opposing implementation of Wazir Commission
report literally. Carving out of more districts in Jammu division than
in Kashmir is justified on the ground of terrain in Jammu division
being hilly and many of its parts falling in far remote areas, while
Kashmir valley is compact one. The area of Jammu division is three
times more than that of Kashmir valley. Some of the areas of Jammu
will still remain far off from their new district headquarters, where
as district headquarters in Kashmir will be in proximity of 10-20
kilometers from each other. Already distance between Srinagar and
Badgam which is a separate district is hardly ten kilometers and now
Gandharbal where new district is proposed to be housed is only 10
kilometers from Srinagar.
It is the carving out of the new assembly constituencies where
injustice with Jammu region will continue unabated. In keeping with
the ratio of population in the two divisions, total areas and
topography, Jammu deserves more assembly seats than in Kashmir
division. It has been under represented in the state assembly, with
number of seats less by 7 than in Kashmir valley. This will not be
rectified, rather only increase balance of power remaining with
Kashmir and Jammu to continue to play second fiddle. In taking these
decisions, Ghulam Nabi Azad may claim to have kept a fine balance
between Jammu and Kashmir but has only offered lollypop to Jammu. He
has failed to take the bold decision to rectify the wrong going on
with Jammu division for last 58 years, which was the true spirit of
these two clauses in the CPM of the ruling coalition.
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