Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 21: Maintaining that establishment of Regional Councils is the only way out for an equitable development of all three regions of the State, former Director General of Police and Director of the Centre for Good Governance and Public Accountability, M M Khajooria has come out with a booklet titled “Concept and Contours of Regional Autonomy”.
The booklet, which presents a blue print of proposed Regional Councils for eliciting public opinion and serious debate so as to arrive at consensus, was formally released by Khajooria along with Team Jammu Chairman Zorawar Singh Jamwal and Prof Alka Sharma of Jammu University, in the presence of prominent intellectuals of Jammu, here today.
“We are not pitching our voice against any particular region, but the concept of regional autonomy by establishing Regional Councils is the only way out and lasting solution for an equitable development of all the three regions including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh,” Khajooria told reporters after releasing the booklet, authored by him.
“We feel that integrity of the regions must be preserved and this was an idea behind introducing the road map of regional autonomy in the State of Jammu and Kashmir through this book,” he added while explaining that the each region of the State has certain peculiarities like Ladakh occupying largest chunk of territory has minimum population while Kashmir with largest in population controls minimum land mass and Jammu, on the other hand has second large population as well as territory.
Pointing out that if a particular community has majority in the Region, there are districts under it where the other community has the majority, elaborated that this pattern fallows down to Panchayats. “This is true of Jammu region and interestingly the minority in number of districts is over 40 percent of the population,” he said adding that the communities are so inter-twined that separation is out of the question.
Stressing that communal harmony is a necessity, Khajooria said, “I am firmly of the opinion that the concept of autonomy in J&K must be circumscribed by three basic pre-conditions. Firstly, the integrity of the composite State; secondly, integrity of three regions and thirdly, fair, equitable and just political, administrative and developmental dispensation rooted in democratic-decentralization.”
“Even Delhi is Kashmir centric but Jammu has to raise its voice against decades old discrimination. Time has come when the Jammu and its people are needed to be acknowledged,” he stressed and claimed that with the creation of Regional Council in the shape and style suggested, can and will lead to better inter-regional co-operation and mutual dependence.
Team Jammu Chairman, Zorawar Singh Jamwal also spoke on the occasion and hoped that the booklet would encourage serious open minded debate so as to evolve a consensus on the vital issue. “While Team Jammu is already in the forefront leaving no stone unturned to achieve the goal, guidance by the people like M M Khajooria will surely help generating more support for the cause,” he said and appealed all the political parties to openly come forward in support of the demand for Regional Councils, which would be a win win situation for all.
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