Jammu, Mar 27: Members of Legislative Council on Tuesday cut across the party lines and cornered the state government what they termed as discrepancies in the electoral rolls when they pointed out that the data furnished in the house reveals that electors in some districts had decreased while population had increased.
 Both the treasury benches and opposition party members pointed out the variations in data provided and demanded   rectification of discrepancies.
 The reply given to the question raised by Ravinder Kumar Sharma, showed that the electors have  decreased in some areas  between  2002 to 2008 but the over all population has increased.
 District Rajouri, Jammu, Samba, Reasi, Kargil, Leh and Srinagar observed a decline in electors by -6.4,-5.6,-2.3,-2.8,-13.6,-17.5 and -5.7 per cent respectively between the period of 2002 to 2008, while population of these districts has increased.
 In census report 2001 the population of Rajouri, Jammu, Samba, Reasi, Kargil, Leh and Srinagar districts was 48,3284, 1357077, 272539,247694,119307,117232,1027670, respectively  while in as per 2011 census the population of these districts was recorded at  619266, 1526406, 318611, 314714, 143388, 147104, 1269751 in that order.
 Replying to the question, Minister of State for Cooperatives, Printing and Stationery and Elections (Independent Charge), Manohar Lal Sharma said that this variation is due to change in residence, deaths, marriages of girls, migration from rural to urban areas and similar other phenomenon as the voters remain registered at original place they belong and also get registered at their new places.
 Taking a dig at the minister,  National Conference member Ajay Sadhotra pointed out that the record shows an increase in over all electors of the state in 2002 to 2008 by 384407 or 5.83 per cent while on the other hand the number of electors in the districts has decreased and asked how the government would justify this variation.
 He said, “Why government shies away from admitting that there are discrepancies in the revised electoral rolls and concentrate for rectifying the same?”
 While raising supplementary, Syeed Rafiq Shah and Chowdhary Nizamuddin Khatana alleged that the census had not been conducted properly in hilly areas properly and maximum people from these areas including nomads have not been enrolled in the fresh electoral roll. They demanded to know what steps government had taken to deal with the problem.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST