Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: Displaced persons (DPs) of 1947 from Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK) including others residing in Suchetgarh Assembly segment held a massive dharna, demanding de-reservation of Suchetgarh constituency and also implementation of Joint Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs report No. 183, the only roadmap for final rehabilitation of DPs.
A large number of DPs assembled near the SDM office, RS Pura and staged dharna under the banner of Jammu Kashmir Sharnarthi Action Committee (JKSAC) led by Bhagwan Singh, Capt Puran Singh Chib, president and vice-president respectively, Sub-district unit RS Pura along with Suram Singh Chib, Joginder Lal and Surjeet Singh. The protester strongly criticised the Delimitation Commission for reserving the said constituency without following any logical criteria/parameter. The protestor also condemned the associate members MPs for their non-cooperation in this regard. A memorandum was also submitted to Home Minister Amit Shah through SDM.
While addressing the gathering Gurdev Singh, president JKSAC said since the formulation of Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, was continuously appealed to carve out atleast 2-3 constituencies for DPs of 1947 from PoK keeping in view of their large concentration of votes in many constituencies particularly in Nowshera, Jammu South and Suchetgarh. He said that in this regard many representations were made to the Commission and also associate members were appealed to apprise the Commission about the ground realities. In this regard a viable map was also submitted to the Commission during their visit at Jammu. He regretted that draft report of Commission as appeared in the print media is indicating open discrimination with DPs as their thickly populated areas has been dissected and clubbed with other constituencies.
He further said that associate member MPs still can play a vital role in convincing the Commission to create at least 2/3 constituencies for DPs in view of having their large concentration in many constituencies of Jammu region. He said that Suchetgarh constituency (which is a border constituency) is having above 45,000 votes of DPs including others out of 62,095 total votes, failing to understand that how this constituency has been reserved without following the settled norms.
Emphasizing the need for carving out 2-3 constituencies for DPs, he said in absence of their representation in the legislature they have been victimized and virtually deprived of their legitimate rehabilitation by the successive earlier state and Central Governments. He said JKSAC was always demanding reservation for DPs in J&K Legislature either by defreezing their share of seats out of reserved 24 or through any other mean. He made a appeal to Chairman Delimitation Commission to take holistic view to de-reserve the Suchetgarh constituency.
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