news details |
|
|
| Population of Jammu equal to Kashmir, if not more | | Flawed census operation | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 19: There are experts and politically awakened people in Jammu Pradesh who have been refusing to accord legitimacy to the findings of the 2011 census operations. They have been saying that the population of Jammu Pradesh is more as compared to Kashmir and that those who finalized the census report "fudged" the census figures in order to put Kashmir at an advantageous position and once again harm the legitimate interests of people of Jammu Pradesh.
One cannot but endorse their view. The available statistics do suggest that those who conducted the census operations and finalized the report have not done justice to Jammu Pradesh and that the difference between Kashmir and Jammu in terms of population was never that huge, as it has been since 2001. The critics say that the "census figures were willfully fudged to defeat the age-old demand in Jammu for due representation in the Assembly and Parliament based on population/voter strength, land area and accessibility and enable Kashmir to perpetuate its domination over the state polity and economy".
It needs to be underlined that the population of Kashmir province, minus Ladakh region, according to the 2011 census figures, was around 70 lakh and that of Jammu Pradesh around 53 lakh (difference 17 lakh). In 2001, according to the census figures, the total population of the state was 1,01,43,700. The break-up was: Kashmir region more than 55 lakh, Jammu Pradesh 44.28 lakh and Ladakh region 2.36 lakh. The difference between Kashmir and Jammu in terms of population was around 10.50 lakh - a huge difference indeed. In 1951, the difference between the two regions in terms of population was just two lakh. In 1961, the difference was around four lakh. The position remained more or less static between 1971 and 2001. There was only marginal increase in population in Kashmir. The most significant aspect of the whole situation was that the number of voters in Jammu Pradesh was more for most of the period. It was only in 2008 that state election department announced that the number of voters in Kashmir had substantially increased. The announcement had caused a stir in the political circles in Jammu Pradesh, with the BJP and the JKNPP leadership questioning the very rationale behind the sudden increase in the number of voters in Kashmir. Their argument was that Kashmir had witnessed wholesale migration of Kashmiri Hindus as well as thousands of Muslims and Sikhs from the Valley in the wake of the rise of secessionist movement. It was a valid argument.
How could the number of voters increase in a region which was engulfed by secessionist and communal violence and which forced more than three lakh Kashmiris to quit their homes and hearths and settle in Jammu and other parts of the country? These question needs to be answered by the powers-that-be to set the record straight and make the people of Jammu Pradesh aware of the circumstances leading to a huge increase in population and voters in the Kashmir Valley. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
