Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 14: The Movement for Justice for Refugees of 1947 from PoJK has already welcomed the formation of Delimitation Commission to realign and create 7 more new assembly segments for the legislative assembly of the new Union Territory of J&K taking the total seats to 90.
“Govt of India and the then State Constituent Assembly in 1951-57, on the basis that PoJK is integral part of India, had kept 25 seats out of 111 reserved for voters of PoJK areas. Out of these later-on, 1 seat was opened up by creating a new segment of Mendhar Constituency in border district of Poonch. On the same analogy, the thousands of DP families of 1947 have not been given any claims of their loss of lives and left over properties in PoJK. DPs of 1947 had lost tens of thousands of their kith and kin in the genocide during the tribal raid of 1947. They have been waiting for justice and final settlement/rehabilitation for the last 70 years, even have been deprived of their constitutional political rights to send their representatives to the legislature assembly and parliament as well, on the premise that the occupied areas of the state will be taken back, when and how is still a question,” said the statement issued by the Movement for Justice for Refugees of 1947 from PoJK.
It further said, “We, the DPs of 1947, had been demanding restoration of our political rights by de-freezing atleast eight (8) assembly seats out of the 24 seats still kept reserved for the area occupied by Pakistan in proportion to our population of DPs displaced from these areas. No previous Govt paid any heed to this and justice was being delayed for decades.” The statement further said that subsequent to the passing of the resolution by the Parliament in Feb 1994, declaring PoJK as an integral part of India, hopes had arisen among the DPs, but for almost three decades now, no further action has been taken.
“During the plenary session of the BJP at Surajkund, the then National President of BJP, Rajnath Singh, acknowledging our genuine demands, had demanded reserving 4 seats for the DPs of 1947. This had enhanced the hopes among the DPs and during the general election of 2014, over 8 Lakh DP voters had voted enmass in favour of BJP all over India as they had pinned their last hopes on BJP only,” added the statement.
The statement further added that a number of bold decisions have been taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially with regard to State of J&K viz abrogation of Article 370 and 35A to turn the state into Union Territories, adding that now the formation of Delimitation Commission has further raised hopes as this was the perfect time, opportunity and platform to defreeze at least 8 assembly seats for DPs of 1947 from PoJK.
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