Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 21: Reiterating the demand for political empowerment of the PoJK Displaced Persons, Chairman of S O S International, Rajiv Chuni has written to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah asking the Central Government to defreeze at least eight out of 24 Assembly seats, which are reserved for the community.
In a letter to Amit Shah, Chuni drew his attention towards the reports that Union Cabinet is going to take a call on proposed nomination of two or three PoJK Displaced Persons to the J&K Legislative Assembly and said that this nominal reservation would be another injustice with the PoJK DPs, who have been deprived of their due share in power for the last 75 years.
“For the PoJK Displaced Persons, Central Government should defreeze at least eight seats, out of 24 constituencies, that have been reserved for the community in the J&K Assembly because nearly one-third population of Hindus and Sikhs had migrated here in 1947,” he said.
Further, the SOS International chief added, reservation of eight seats for PoJK Displaced Persons is not only a demand of the community settled here but even the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs regarding ‘problems being faced by PoJK Displaced Persons in J&K’ in its final report presented to Lok Sabha and tabled in Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2014, had unanimously recommended that eight seats should be defreezed for the PoJK refugees.
“On page number 38, Para 3.2.2.3, the final reports states: The Committee considers that the Government of India should take up the matter of defreezing of eight seats for PoJK DPs with the State Government of J&K keeping in view the problems being faced by the DPs. The Ministry may impress upon the State Government to make amendment in the State Constitution, if necessary, at the earliest,” he quoted the report.
Chuni reminded that following abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act, 2019, the Parliament has the sole power to defreeze any number of seats for PoJK DPs.
“Since the ball is in the court of BJP-led Central Government and the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has already recommended defreezing of eight Assembly seats for the PoJK Displaced Persons in J&K, we strongly believe that there should be no confusion over the number of seats to be reserved for the community and the same should be done immediately,” said Chuni.
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