Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 4 : Various delegations of political parties and social organisations today called on visiting Delimitation Commission here and submitted the memorandums highlighting their views and demands.
All India Confederation of SC/ST/OBC Organisation J&K under the leadership of RK Kalsotra, State president, accompanied by Mohammad Abdullah, Ch, Dina Nath, and Amarnath Bhagat met Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and other members of the Delimitation Commission and welcomed the release of the draft report by it for public consultations and also the reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes for the first time in the history of J& K.
The delegation however demanded constitution of an Expert Panel to correct the 2011 census data and then carry the delimitation to ensure that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are not awarded lesser seats than they deserved.
It appealed for special provisions for the West Pakistan refugees and urged the Commission to rotate all the existing reserved seats so that weaker sections can benefit from the Constitutional provision of political reservation in areas where no Assembly seat was ever reserved in the past.
A delegation of Kashmiri Pandit Sabha, Jammu led by its president, K K Khosa met the Delimitation Commission and demanded that in case the Commission was unable to make a provision for reservation of Assembly seats then it may make a recommendation to the Government of India to create a mechanism for inclusion of at least three members of community to be nominated to Assembly and one to Parliament by amending the Constitution of the country.
The Sabha delegation also stressed on political empowerment of the community which it said is only possible after giving it representation in Assembly and Parliament.
Deputation from Kishtwar district headed by Shariq Ahmad Saroori which met the Commission demanded merging Chenab Valley comprising of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban with Anantnag Parliamentary seat. Keeping in view the topography, geography, tradition, culture wise it should be merged with Anantnag rather than Kathua.
PC Karool and PC Londhri in Drabshalla block at present with Kishtwar Assembly constituency should be with Inderwal constituency.
The only Patwar Halqa carved out from Sub Division Chatroo namely Patwar Circle Mulchitter should be added with Inderwal instead of Kishtwar AC.
All J&K PoJK 1947 Sharnarthi Intellectual Forum which met the Commission under the leadership of Amrik Singh its president and Surjit Singh general secretary of the Forum demanded 24 Assembly seats of PoJK 1947 displaced persons freezed by the Union Government. Amrik Singh stated that since 75 years have lapsed and about more than 15 lakh voters of displaced persons are denied their democratic rights.
They demanded if Commission feels any problem then eight seats be nominated for DPs to give them representation in the Assembly.
It also raised the issue of S.No. 74 of Assembly constituency of excluding the Chowadi and W. No. 68, 69 and 70 from Bahu constituency and be included into Gandhinagar constituency and further suggested for deserving of Suchet Garh constituency.
All India Jat Maha Sabha (AIJMS) delegation called on the Delimitation Commission and sought de-reservation of constituencies having majority of Jat population, and submitted a memorandum of demands to the Commission.
Ch Manmohan Singh, president AIJMS J&K led the delegation raised concern of Jat community which according to him has been completely neglected by this delimitation exercise which has been envisaged to remove anomalies in demarcation of constituencies in J&K. He said that all border constituencies from Kathua to Mendhar were reserved by the Delimitation Commission whether it is Kathua, Hiranagar, Samba, Bishnah, Ramgarh, Suchetgarh, Marh, Khour, etc leaving no scope for the Jat community in the polls.
He said that the Delimitation Panel also did injustice with Jats of Suchetgarh, which was first disbanded and merged with some other constituency and after protests and objections it was restored but to the surprise for entire Jat community it was also reserved to single out the Jats showing prejudice and discrimination of the level next.
Ch Manmohan appealed to the Delimitation Commission to de-reserve two constituencies including Suchetgarh and Ramgarh out of four to provide fair chance to Jat community people.
Ramesh Chander Mahajan president of Kashmiri Khatri Hindu Maha Sabha has also put forth the memorandum to Delimitation Commission regarding their demands.
The delegation said as Government alienated seven lakh Kashmiri Hindus same procedure has adopted by the Delimitation Commission for ignoring the sufferings of bonafide Kashmiri Hindus in delimitation process and eliminating the unrepresented community in Assembly constituencies as well as Parliamentary reservation for allocation.
The delegation demanded that seven lakh Kashmiri Hindu seeking either the Sangha model of Sikkim where a floating Assembly constituency is reserved for Buddhist monks are comprising of only 4000 voters same pattern should be reserved for Kashmiri Hindus or like the nomination models seen in Pondicherry as Assembly or for those Anglo Indian as possible methods to ensure representation of ‘minority Hindus of Kashmir Valley’ in the J&K assembly.
A joint delegation of the Kashmiri Pandits submitted a memorandum to Delimitation Commission and said that the issue of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits can’t be ignored so far as the political representation of the community is concerned.
The delegation said that displaced communities of Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Sikhs have no opportunity in the prevailing situation to get elected either to the J&K Assembly or to the Parliament.
The Government could be asked to favourably consider the issue of amendment in the Constitution to accommodate the displaced community by inclusion through reservation or nomination to the J&K Assembly. There are already a number of instances in this regard in our country in various states like Sikkim, Pudduchery, the previously Anglo-Indian nominations in the Parliament or the Women nominations in J&K Assembly.
The delegation comprised Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, Senior BJP & KP leader, Yoginder Kaul, former IGP, and Virender Raina, president, Panun Kashmir.
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