Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 11: In a bold political decision, all six legislators of erstwhile Doda district of Congress today boycotted the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to protest what they called ‘total neglect of the three districts’ by the party but not giving representation to them in the Council of Ministry.
The CLP meeting, which was also attended by senior office bearers of the party for more than two hours here this morning, took up a host of issues including election to four seats of Legislative Council from Panchayat quota, being held on December 3. The Congress will put its stand on sharing of two seats each for the MLC poll before National Conference-Congress Co-ordination Committee meeting, which is meeting at the Guest House tomorrow at 10 am under the chairmanship of PCC (I) chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz.
There was near consensus in the Congress meeting, which was also by Prof Soz, that the party should stake claim for one seat each in both the divisions though there were different view points aired by some of the party leaders.
Reliable sources told the Excelsior that all six Congress legislators from Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, which comprised erstwhile Doda district, boycotted the CLP meeting in a pre-planned and unanimous decision. They included Mohammad Sharief Niaz, MLA Bhaderwah, Abdul Mujeed Wani, MLA Doda, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, MLA Inderwal, Vakar Rasool, MLA Banihal, Ashok Kumar Bhagat, MLA Ramban and Naresh Kumar Gupta, MLC. Of them, Mr Niaz, Mr Wani and Mr Saroori were former Ministers.
There were six Assembly segments in three districts. Of them, Congress represented five while National Conference MLA Sajjad Kitchloo held one seat of Kishtwar.
Sources said all six Congress legislators had decided to boycott the meeting to protest the Congress decision to deny representation to hilly and backward erstwhile Doda district the representation in the Council of Ministry. “None of us (six legislators of Congress from three districts of Doda) attended the meeting. It was definitely a protest as the party was ignoring erstwhile Doda district and its people, who were suffering a lot due to denial of representation in the Council of Ministry’’, two senior MLAs from the district told the Excelsior.
One of them said that a small tehsil of Akhnoor has four major representatives from the Congress including Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma, Member Parliament Madan Lal Sharma and Vice Chairman of Backward Classes Development Board, Kuldeep Verma, who enjoyed Minister of State status.
“Erstwhile Jammu district (including Samba) has 13 Assembly segments. Of them, Congress had won three in 2008 Assembly elections (Akhnoor, Chhamb and Gandhi Nagar). All three were Ministers in the Government. Even one of the MLC from Jammu district is a Cabinet Minister. However, the hilly and backward Doda region has overwhelmingly supported Congress by electing five MLAs out of total six seats but none of them had been made the Minister’’, they said, adding that Mr Saroori, who was Cabinet Minister, was also removed under the conspiracy in August 2010 totally denying representation to Doda belt.
They pointed out that it was on three occasions that the Congress has made MLCs as Cabinet Ministers (Gulchain Singh Charak, Abdul Gani Vakil and RS Chib). However, the duly elected representatives of Doda belt have been ignored, they said. They added that even administration of three districts was not taking them seriously.
Worthwhile to mention here that all six MLAs and MLCs of erstwhile Doda district belonged to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad faction of the Congress.
Medical and Technical Education Minister RS Chib and Minister for Cooperatives Dr Manohar Lal Sharma were also not present in the meeting. Mr Chib had gone to Himachal Pradesh to attend a wedding.
Meanwhile, sources said, some of the CLP and other Congress leaders voiced concern over their two portfolios of Works and Education, currently held by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, not being restored to them. Works Department was lying with the Chief Minister since August 2010 when Mr Saroori was dismissed from the Cabinet over examination controversy involving his daughter in which he had been given clean chit by the CBI while Education Department was lying with Omar after Congress leader Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed was divested of the portfolio due to involvement of his son in Board of School Education examination scam.
Some of the Congress legislators complained that they were not being even consulted by the bureaucrats of Works and Education Department while formulating policies and schemes of the two Departments, which belonged to the party.
Few Congress legislators wanted expansion in the Council of Ministry to give berth to two Congress leaders with their portfolios, sources said.
On core issue of election for four seats of MLCs from Panchayat quota, the Congress legislators and senior office bearers aired different views. Some of them wanted to maintain pressure on the ally National Conference by seeking three seats while a couple of leaders wanted Congress to claim both seats of Jammu division. At the same time, others wanted both seats of Kashmir. There were few voices, who wanted the Congress to contest all four seats as a “friendly match’’ with National Conference but there were no takers of this stand in the party.
But, according to sources, there was consensus that the Congress would go to tomorrow’s Co-ordination Committee meeting with an open mind and first know the view point of National Conference before making its stand known. However, there seemed to be unanimity in the Congress circles that the coalition partners should contest two seats each (one each in both the divisions).
“Only after a decision on sharing four seats was finalized in tomorrow’s Co-ordination Committee meeting that the Congress would undertake the exercise of finalizing the candidates’’, sources said.
On another significant issue of implementation of major provisions of 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India in Jammu and Kashmir, the CLP decided that the major provisions would be identified within one week by the two party committees headed by GA Mir, former Minister and Ravinder Sharma, MLC and chief spokesperson of the party.
After discussions in the party, Prof Soz would be calling another meeting of the Co-ordination Committee to take up important provisions of 73rd amendment of the Constitution for implementation in the State.
“Only after these provisions were implemented that the elections to the Block Development Councils (BDCs) would be held’’, sources said, adding the CLP also debated extent of reservations to Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes and women in the elections to chairpersons of the BDCs. While there was near unanimity on giving 33 per cent reservations to women, the party was of the view that reservations to SCs and STs should be decided on the basis of their population according to latest census figures.
The CLP was of the view that major provisions of 73rd amendment like reservation for SCs/STs and women, three tier Panchayat system and Constitutional guarantee to Panchayats, BDCs and District Development and Planning Boards should be guaranteed among others.
Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Taj Mohi-ud-Din, who is in the midst of a major controversy for his involvement in encroachment of forest land at Shopian, was also present in the meeting. Sources said the Taj controversy was not debated in the meeting but some of the leaders did raise the issue shouldn’t be openly debated in public and media, which was supplying image of the Congress.
The Congress leaders were of the view that elections to the Urban Local Bodies should be held at the earliest to restore democratic institutions.
Prof Soz told the Excelsior that he got the sense of party legislators and senior leaders on the elections of four seats of Legislative Council and would convey it to the Co-ordination Committee.
He said the Taj controversy didn’t figure in the meeting. He added that major provisions of 73rd amendment would be identified within a week for incorporation in the State Panchayati Raj Act.
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