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| BJP wants whitepaper on discrimination | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 22: BJP state vice-president and spokesman Prof Hari Om and State General Secretary Shamsher Singh Manhas today accused both the Congress and National Conference of betraying the people of Jammu province and misleading them.
“Apart from these two parties, plus the PDP, have reduced them to a nullity in the State’s polity and the BJP shares their grouse against the successive governments in the State”, said BJP leaders, adding “reorganization of the State on provincial basis is the only panacea available for meeting their needs and compulsions and becoming master of their own fate within India and under the Union Constitution”.
Prof Om and Manhas said that Jammu, whose population is more by any yardstick, whose land area is almost double that of Kashmir and whose nature of terrain is highly treacherous and difficult, has been reduced to a nullity for all practical purposes by the Valley leadership by manipulating 46 seats in a house of 87. Kashmir returns three members to the Lok Sabha and 46 to the assembly at the rate of one per 9.61 lakh voters and 62,673 voters, respectively, and Jammu returns two members to the Lok Sabha and 37 to the assembly at the rate one per 15.59 lakh voters and 84,270 voters, respectively.
The BJP leaders said Kashmir has, in contrast, 46 assembly segments at the rate of one per 344 sq km on an average and Jammu has 37 assembly segments at the rate of one per 710 sq km on an average. It is the Kashmir’s excessive representation in the assembly which has deprived the people of Jammu province of their legitimate share in the State’s political and economic spheres.
They said had the Congress-led Government implemented its July 2006 decision, Kashmir would have got 58 seats as against the existing 46 and Jammu only 46 as against the existing 37, thus further increasing the difference in the number of assembly seats between Kashmir and Jammu from the existing 9 to 12.
The BJP leaders asked the State Governor to issue an ordinance using his powers under section 92 of the State Constitution and remove the anomaly so that Jammu gets more than 50 per cent representation in the assembly.
In support of their claim that Jammu contributes more revenue, they said the Government realized Rs 2474.802 crores from Jammu and Rs 1075.29 crores from Kashmir as sales tax between 1975 and 2007.
The BJP leaders said that their party would not only make the issue of discrimination as one of its major election planks, but would also expose the dirty role of these parties during the agitation in Jammu over the Amarnath land issue. |
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