Jammu, 03-02-2021: Referring to repeated statements made by state and central BJP leaders assuring early delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister regretted that all such utterances have also proved to be mere “Jumlas”. He reminisced that BJP had made tall claims of increasing the seats in the newly created J&K UT to 90 and enhancing the share of Jammu region through delimitation exercise. This assurance, like various other tall slogans of the BJP, has also been reduced to a mere chest thumping exercise with Delimitation of Assemblies nowhere in sight despite the formation of Delimitation Commission last year and its tenure coming to end on March 6, 2021. He was addressing a press conference in Jammu today. Maintaining that Delimitation of Assemblies and increase of seats for Jammu region was the most favourite slogan of BJP during 2014 elections and thereafter, Mr. Singh regretted that it seemed to be used as a mere election gimmick. “The govt had though constituted the Delimitation Commission last year under public pressure but no action seemed to have been initiated despite the tenure of the said commission ending next month. No representations from the public representatives or political parties were invited, no meeting of commission was held, none of the members of the commission visited J&K for physical assessment and no meeting of even Associate members was ever convened. It appeared that the BJP govt at the centre and its agencies had no intention to fulfill even the most coveted demand of the people of Jammu region for fresh delimitation and an equitable share in Assembly for the two regions of J&K”, asserted Mr. Singh. Emphasising the urgency to initiate the Delimitation process on war footing, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that geographical area, topography, no. of voters, nature of terrain, inaccessibility and poor communication facilities are the factors which weigh heavily in favour of Jammu region and entitle it to a higher number of Assembly constituencies. Quoting the officials statistics, Mr. Singh said that it was ironical that Kashmir valley with a total area of 15953 sq. Kms had 46 Assembly seats as compared to 37 seats for Jammu region whose geographical areas was 26293 sq Kms. He further said that Kashmir region despite well developed communication links and a high road density has one Assembly segment for every 346 sq Kms area, but contrarily Jammu region with its highly tough terrain and acute accessibility problems and an extremely low road density has one assembly segment for every 710 sq Kms. He said that in terms of voters also there are wide disparities with constituencies in Kashmir like Gurez Assembly which has merely 16,000 voters against around two lakh voters of Jammu west and Gandhi Nagar constituencies. He said that Kishtwar region provided the most glaring example of discrimination as its had only two assembly seats with an area of 7824 sq Kms which was half of the area of entire Kashmir region. Likewise District Udhampur, Jammu, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch also were required to be given additional Assembly seats in view of their entitlement on the basis of prescribed norms governing delimitation.
He said that the centre and state should act promptly as per their assurances and the needful was required to be done at the earliest. He warned of a full scale agitation in case the govt. didn’t complete the process for Delimitation of Assembly constituencies at the earliest in conformity with its repeated assurances.
Mr. Rajesh Padgotra, Provincial President (JKNPP); Mr. Gagan Pratap Singh, State Secretary (JKNPP); Mr. Parshotam Parihar, State Secretary (Panthers Trade Union) and Mr. Raj Pratap Singh, Provincial President (NPSU) were also present in the press conference.