Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 18: Senior Kashmiri Pandit and BJP leader, Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo has urged the Delimitation Commission to reserve five seats for the minority Kashmiri Pandits in J&K Assembly and one seat each be reserved and nominated in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.
In this connection he has sent a memorandum to the Delimitation Commission.
The memorandum said there has to be a forward march towards ending discrimination with the people of the UT through the intervention of the Delimitation Commission now. There can’t be two opinions about the fact of discrimination and bias against the region of Jammu in respect of delimitation earlier which allotted three seats to the Kashmir and two seats only to the Jammu region for the Parliament in addition to giving 46 Assembly seats to Kashmir and 37 seats to Jammu division. This was and remains a violation of the fundamental rights in terms of equality and equal opportunities, he added.
The issue of the representation of the indigenous people of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits, through delimitation of constituencies is an important part of the road ahead in J&K and there are expectations that the discrimination with a large portion of population in the UT will come to an end by a judicious delimitation process in the near future, he said.
The KPs, who are living as refugees in their own country for the last over three decades, have remained unrepresented all along due to gerrymandering of constituencies in the Valley. They form a politically victimised community for no fault of theirs and the ethnic cleansing in 1989-90 has added to and multiplied their woes.
Chrungoo in a fervent appeal to the Delimitation Commission urged it to exercise its powers to send such a recommendation to the President and the Government of India that settles the unsettled issue of politically important concern of the KP community. It will also help in paving way for the resettlement of the community in the Valley, eventually, as per their geo-political aspirations in the days to come.
“We demand that five seats be reserved/nominated for the minority community of Kashmir valley in the Legislative Assembly of the UT of J&K and also reserve and nominate one seat each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively. The Pudducherry Assembly, which has an arrangement for three nominated seats, in this context, is a guiding and leading example”, he added.
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