Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 7: The Delimitation of seats in Jammu and Kashmir by Sumer Khajuria and his sons Sunil and Anil Khajuria both advocates hit the stands today.
The book throws light on the autocratic conduct of then Chief Minister of J&K Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah’s regime, the cruel effects of Article 370 and how in isolation of Delimitation Commission an Administrative Delimitation Committee was constituted aftermath the Regent’s notification dated May 1, 1951.
The book says that population in 1951 was 14,58,548 for Jammu region while it was 17,12,964 for Kashmir Valley but the fixed criteria of 40,000 for each seat was kept at bay in allocating arbitrary 30 seats for Jammu region against due quota of 37 seats but whereas Kashmir province got 43 seats.
The book says even after coming into force the State owned Representatives of Peoples Act in 1957, no heed was paid to criterion fixed under its Section 4, but again kept at bay all the adversities faced by Jammu region in respect of unalienable in nature in tough topography , lack of development , education, health , social sectors including lack of road communication as had been pointed out in the justice GB Gajendragarkar Commission.
The shocking state further prevailed when Dr Farooq Abdullah’s Government banned further delimitation upto the census , thereby creating a gap of 50 years between 1981 to 2031. On other hand the population figures of Kashmir province went on exaggerating in a very calculated manner by creating a wide gap of 15 lakh population in 2011 between Jammu and Kashmir provinces. Which is well exposed from the registered voters during 2014 Parliamentary elections having minor difference of about four lakh votes whereas polled votes both in Parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2019 as well as 2014 Assembly elections were much higher in Jammu region than Kashmir province.
The author of the book has concluded that the required operative strength of Assembly seats needs to be raised to 95 instead of 90 by corresponding reduction of PoJK quota and six seats in Lok Sabha instead of five seats with due allocation of 49 seats in Jammu and 46 for Kashmir region. This way three seats for Kashmiri Pandits and one seat for Sikhs in Kashmir province as subsisting in 1951 be restored with due increments besides benefits to SCs to Muslims castes like Wattle etc in Kashmir be also provided reservation coupled with reservation for Schedule Tributes in both provinces.
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