Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 23: The Jammu Kashmir Sharnarthi Action Committee (JKSAC) has made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister, Amit Shah to revise terms of reference specified for Delimitation Commission to accommodate constitutional aspirations of DPs of 1947 from PoK, while redrawing the constituencies of UT of J&K as the feedback in this regard has been provided to the Commission by the representatives.
The participants in the meeting held at Gole Gujral here today demanded that two constituencies in proportion to their population/votes be demarcated in Jammu region and simultaneously provision for their nomination maybe created on the line as existed for women in erstwhile J&K State Assembly and in this regard a memorandum has been submitted to Delimitation Commission panel headed by Justice Ranjana Desai on July 8, 2021.
Addressing the meeting Gurdev Singh, president along with Kulwant Singh, Harpal Singh & Gurteg Singh apprised the participants that JKSAC since its inception in 1967, left no stone unturned to highlight the political discrimination meted out to DPs by refusing their legitimate constitutional rights of representation for the last seven decades. He said that Delimitation is meant to give representation to only those sections of society who remained unrepresented and denied justice in this regard. He said that at many such occasions particularly when J&K Assembly seats were raised from 75 to 111 by making 20th Amendments in erstwhile J&K constitution in 1988 and again in 1995, Justice retired KK Gupta Commission was announced to redraw the boundaries of constituencies and later on in 2002 when Dr Farooq Abdullah freezed the fresh delimitation till Ist census of 2026 i.e. 2031 by making 29th Amendment in the erstwhile constitution of the State.
JKSAC strongly resented all the time by a “Jail Baro Andolan” in 1988 and similarly raised voice in 1995 and 2002 for achieving the legitimate right of representation for DPs, but nothing happened as such due to negative mindset of then Govt and particularly having no political support of Jammu based political parties. The DPs voice was not heard and 24 territorial constituencies were kept vacant again. SAC leaders appealed to Lt. Governor Manoj K. Sinha to take up the said DPs issue with PM as discussed and promised in Dec 19, 2020 meeting.
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