Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 9: The former Union Minister and MLA Jammu West Assembly Segment, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, has impressed upon the Election Commission of India and all other concerned to have an extensive study of the electoral rolls in J&K to ensure fair delimitation of the constituencies and that of corporation wards.
In a statement issued here today, Prof Gupta said it was a sad history that certain elements had been playing foul with the electoral process making a mockery of the democracy. This approach had led to many problems in this part of the country. But it was unfortunate that even after the extension of the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India, such elements did not relent, he added.
Prof Gupta said it was intriguing that prior to 2008 Assembly elections, Jammu region was having more electorates than those of Kashmir Valley. In 2002 Assembly elections the Jammu region was having more electorate than Kashmir Valley and in the history of electoral process these elections were recognized everywhere as “most fair’’.
In the wake of these elections, Prof Gupta said it was for the first time that the Government of the State was changed through elections. He further said that during the past 4/5 years large number of electorate of Jammu region have been mysteriously deleted to change the regional balances. Not only this, even in the preparation of electoral rolls for civic elections, a foul play is evident itself, he added.
He said in certain wards large number of voters have not been registered and on the contrary in many wards especially in the city of Srinagar the number of electorate have almost been doubled whereas in some other wards there have been no change. In this regard, he pointed out that in Srinagar city an increase of over 1.55 lakh voters has been registered in 68 wards where as in Jammu city this increase in 71 wards is just about 17,000, he added.
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