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| | | CCI delegation calls on Delimitation Commission
eaRLY TIMES rEPORT
Jammu, July 8: A delegation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) called on Delimitation Commission and put forth their demands.
They also submitted a memorandum, which reads, “Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995. The last exercise was conducted by the Justice (retired) K K Gupta Commission when the state was under President’s Rule and was based on the 1981 census, which formed the basis of the state elections in 1996. There was no census in the state in 1991 and no Delimitation Commission was set up by the state government after the 2001 census as the J&K Assembly passed a law putting a freeze on the fresh delimitation of seats until 2026. This freeze was upheld by the Supreme Court. The J&K Assembly, at that time, had 87 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh. Twenty-four more seats are reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The freeze, some political parties argue, has created inequity for Jammu region”.
It further reads, the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 says that the number of seats in the Assembly of J&K would be increased from 107 to 114. As per 2011 Census, the population in Kashmir region is 68,88,475, Jammu has a population of 53,78,538. There are 37,33,111 voters in Jammu division, 40,10,971 voters in Kashmir division in the year 2019. The delimitation commission has to adjust the boundaries of more seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
They also alleged census of 2011 was highly fudged, manipulated and misleading, and was done with Kashmiri politicians to have a permanent edge on formulation of government. The distribution of 46 seats to Kashmir and 37 to Jammu, and distinct advantage of 6 districts out of 10 in Jammu region, having majority of one community, will always ensure, that Government will always formed by Kashmir politicians. This anomaly can only be corrected by an unbiased, fair and fresh census based on census of 2021.
“The population of Jammu region was shown to be lower than the Kashmir Valley in that census. The population of Kashmir was shown to have increased by 14 lakh in 10 years from 2001 to 2011 (in the 2011 Census). The average population growth of Jammu region between1971 to 2001 was 31 per cent, which was shown to have dropped to 21 per cent in 2011 (census), such a dip in the population only happens if there occurs some pandemic / catastrophe or war type situation but there was no such situation in Jammu. In fact during that tenure substantial population migrated from Kashmir to Jammu on account of escalating terrorist activities in the Valley”, they said.
The population in 1951 was 14,58,548 for Jammu region while it was 17,12,964 for Kashmir Valley but the fixed criteria of 40,000 for each seat was kept at bay in allocating arbitrary 30 seats for Jammu region against due quota of 37 seats but whereas Kashmir province got 43 seats, they said, adding, injustice to Jammu on this count is not new but goes back to 1951 election to J&K Constituent Assembly. On the basis of J&K population in 1951, the criteria of population of 40,000 for each constituency was thrown out of the window by the then National Conference government and arbitrarily allotted 30 seats to Jammu against its actual share of 37 on the basis of the criteria of population and Kashmir was given a lion share of 43 seats. This initial gap of six seats increased to nine in 1995.
“On other hand the population figures of Kashmir province went on exaggerating in a very calculated manner by creating a wide gap of 15 lakh population in 2011 between Jammu and Kashmir provinces. Which is well exposed from the registered voters during 2014 Parliamentary elections having minor difference of about four lakh votes whereas polled votes both in Parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2019 as well as 2014 Assembly elections were much higher in Jammu region than Kashmir province”, it reads.
They also said that the Commission should also note that they can also take data from number of formation of Aadhar Cards in Jammu and Kashmir since 2011 which will also bring facts in front of the Commission.
“The other factor is the vastness of area, (here it means region). Jammu has 26,206 sq kms of area against 15,948 sq kms of Kashmir, which means Jammu has 10,348 Sq Km more area and that too difficult hilly terrain. One assessment is that 87 per cent area of Jammu is hard terrain while Kashmir being a Valley, has an overwhelmingly plain area with hardly about 20 per cent hard terrain. That makes Jammu’s case for more constituencies strong”, they said.
“PoJK refugees were deprived of their genuine rights in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. But after abrogation of Art 370, the PoJK refugees got the right to vote along with other other communities like Gorkhas and Valmikis. The new voters like PoJK refugees, Gorkhas, Valmikis and other will also play a vital role in the formation of new government in the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory. The Commission should also consider that the voting share of PoJK refugees, Gorkhas and Valmikis will also have large impact on the number of seats in the ongoing Delimitation process”, they said. |
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