Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, June 9: Describing the Delimitation Commission’s letter to all 20 DCs of J&K 15 months after its constitution seeking basic details regarding electorates etc as a cruel joke with the people of the erstwhile State, JKNPP Chairman and former Minister Harsh Dev Singh said that the Commission’s conduct amply demonstrated the most casual approach of the present dispensation in holding the much trumpeted delimitation exercise in J&K.
“Centre Govt as well as its nominees in J&K who had been making tall pronouncements of early finalization of Delimitation process have been completely exposed as the Commission does not have even the basic information regarding number of voters, topography and composition of Districts and Assembly constituencies which is being sought from various Deputy Commissioners after a lapse of more than one year from the date of its constitution,” he said while addressing a press conference in Udhampur today.
Harsh Dev reminded that the BJP’s vision document released in 2014 prior to elections had promised early Delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K with higher number of seats for Jammu region, besides reservation of 8 seats for POK migrants as well as migrants from Kashmir out of the 24 seats reserved for the territory under illegal occupation of Pakistan. “The BJP however failed to deliver on the said promise also with no action taken by it for 6 years after its ascendance to power. It was only in February 2020, after public pressure, that a Delimitation Commission was constituted. However, it failed to register any progress during the scheduled tenure of one year,” he said, adding that not only has the Commission spilled the beans with regard to Govt’s intentions to delay and deny the elections in J&K but its statement of visiting J&K only after the UT recovers from pandemic is equally intriguing.
“The Election Commission could hold elections in five states only recently by allowing gatherings of lakhs of people and has further announced timely conduct of elections in all other States in early 2021, but the three member Commission is scared of visiting J&K till the pandemic was over. What a paradox?” asserted Mr Singh while condemning the unequal treatment being doled out to the erstwhile State.
Manju Singh (General Secretary-JKNPP), Surjeet Jamwal and others were present in the press conference.
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