Jammu: Delimitation Commission on Monday held two sessions of public sittings and heard objections and suggestions from delegations of people, political parties and civil society members, representing ten districts of Jammu region, to its draft proposals.
The public sittings, which were divided in two sessions, began at 10.00 am at the Convention Centre.
During first interactive session, the individuals and delegations from Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch districts aired their grievances and offered suggestions vis-a-vis Commission’s draft proposals on the reconfiguration of assembly and parliamentary constituencies of J&K.
In the second session, the delegations of people from Reasi, Samba and Jammu participated.
Delimitation Commission, comprising Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson, the Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner (SEC) K K Sharma as its members was set up on March 6, 2020 with one year term. However in the wake of COVID pandemic, its term was extended on March 6, 2021 by one year.
After winding up the first leg of its public sittings in Jammu, the Delimitation Commission later left for the summer capital where it would hold two sessions of public sittings tomorrow at the SKICC, Srinagar to be followed by a press briefing.
The Commission is scheduled to leave for the union capital by tomorrow evening.
“25 delegations from Kathua, 34 delegations from Jammu district, 16 delegations from Samba district, 18 delegations from Udhampur, 2 delegations from Reasi district, 4 delegations from Kishtwar, 1 delegation from Poonch, 5 delegations from Doda district, 15 delegations from Ramban, 8 delegations from Rajouri put forth their representations or objections before the Delimitation Commission,” official sources informed.
The public sittings were also boycotted by some delegations including Congress delegation.
A Congress delegation, comprising JKPCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, former minister Yogesh Sawhney and ex-MLA Ashok Dogra, which reached around 12.00 noon, walked out of the venue. It boycotted the meeting with the team of Delimitation Commission after it found out that the invitation was only in individual capacity and not to the Congress party.
Speaking to media persons, outside the venue, JKPCC chief spokesperson said, “As a matter of respect, the party decided that we should honour the invitation extended to the signatory of the objections of the party. We wanted to tell the Commission to give sufficient time to the party to brief it about the resentment over its draft proposals which had done injustice to different areas and districts.”
“However, finding that there is no system and appointment of the Congress party, we decided to walk out of the venue and boycott the meeting even in individual capacity. However, individual leaders from different respective assembly segments or districts have been given the liberty to meet the Commission,” he said.
“By meeting 300 delegations in a couple of hours, the Commission would do only a cosmetic exercise, which is injustice to the people. The Congress party had submitted detailed objections to the draft proposals, pointing out glaring irregularities. We had batted for a drastic review of the draft in the interests of the general public. Although we expected no justice from the Commission, still we wanted to meet it to give positive suggestions about all parts of Jammu and Kashmir. But it seems that the Commission had no answer to the queries and the objections raised by the Congress party regarding gross violation of norms and ground realities so they avoided the Congress as a party and invited only the individual leaders to represent their respective areas,” Sharma said.
Earlier J&K Bharatiya Janata Party delegation, led by its president Ravinder Raina, during its meeting with the Commission urged it redress grievances of people from Ghagwal, Rajpura, Samba, Gurha Salathia, Maralia, Suchetgarh, Pargwal, Chhamb, Mera-Mandrian, Chowki-Choura, Sunderbani, Doongi and Poonch. Former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta and J&K BJP general secretary and former minister Sunil Sharma accompanied Raina.
Later speaking to the media, Raina stated that the BJP delegation discussed in detail various issues raised by the people of different constituencies as well as the party activists.
“We’ve submitted our detailed representation to the Delimitation Commission, which has done a commendable job in framing draft proposals. We’re confident that the Delimitation Commission will surely provide justice to those marginalized sections and regions who were deliberately denied justice over the decades under previous governments,” Raina said.
With regard to the boycott of the Commission by Congress accusing it of “working at the behest of BJP”, Raina said, “Congress is a sinking ship and it has no mass base. It is trying to divert the attention of people given its misrule for decades through these tactics.”
Jammu DDC member from Suchetgarh Taranjit Singh Tony, who too was invited by the Commission, asked one and all to “boycott it (Commission) for not maintaining the sanctity of a constitutional body and acting at the behest of BJP.”
Official sources maintained that around 25 delegations from Kathua district put forth their grievances before the Commission. Some of the suggestions forwarded to the Commission included that villages Tara Dara, Nihalpur and Muthi should be made part of the proposed assembly segment of Kathua South instead of Kathua North and MC Lakhanpur should be excluded from Kathua South assembly segment.
“Few delegations suggested that Raipur Domana and Nagrota should not be clubbed. Maralian Patwar Circle (PC) should be clubbed with RS Pura instead of Bishnah while Chowadi PC should be included into Bahu assembly segment. Tehsil Mera Mandrian and Chowki Choura should be included in Akhnoor. Another delegation demanded the renaming of the assembly segment of Kathua North as Jai Fort. An individual from Billawar suggested that the Billawar assembly constituency should be reserved as ‘SC’ constituency. Inhabitants of Lohai Malhar said that village Lajur should be clubbed with Billawar assembly segment instead of Bani,” sources stated.
According to sources, G H Haider Malik ex Deputy Speaker J&K Legislative Assembly demanded that Patwar Halqa Sadota, Lajote, Batwal should be excluded from Bani and should be clubbed with Billawar. Ex-MLA Charanjeet Singh suggested that Patwar Halqa Falote and Tara Dara should be clubbed with Kathua South and six Patwar Circles including Lakhanpur, Govindsar, Kharote, Janglote should be clubbed with Kathua North instead of Kathua South.
Among the prominent political dignitaries who met the Commission also included Harshdev Singh, Rajeev Sharma, Manmohan Choudhary, Suresh Sharma, Bhushan Bral, Rajinder Sharma, Iqbal Malik, Pooja Thakur, Shamshad Begum, besides representatives of Kashmiri Pandits, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), social activists, representatives of various communities and social groups.
Earlier, the Commission arrived in Jammu on Sunday to hold its scheduled two public sittings to hear suggestions and objections from J&K people to its draft proposals on the reconfiguration of assembly and parliamentary constituencies of UT.
On April 5, the people from Srinagar, Budgam, Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian will be part of the public sittings at SKICC from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon and can share their objections or suggestions. The people from Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kupwara and Baramulla will participate in the sittings from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm on the same day at the same venue in Srinagar.
The Commission is to submit its final report by or before May 6, 2022, its revised deadline (after its term was further extended by two months).
Earlier on March 14, the Delimitation Commission had put its proposals, recommending massive reconfiguration of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in J&K, in public domain inviting objections and suggestions from people till March 21, 2022.
Prior to it on March 4, 2022, both the National Conference and BJP had submitted their suggestions and objections to the tweaked draft of the Commission. Earlier, they had submitted their objections to the Commission’s initial draft on December 31, 2021 and then again to its revised draft on February 14, 2022.
Besides the proposals, the suggestions and dissent reports submitted by its Associate members from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National Conference (NC) were also put in public domain.
Five Associate members of the Commission included Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mohd Akbar Lone and Justice (retired) Hasnain Masoodi from National Conference and Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma from BJP.
The draft proposals of Commission were published in pursuance of sub-section (5) of Section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019), read with sub-section 2 of section 9 of the Delimitation Act, 2002. They had complete data about the composition of Patwar and Tehsil halqas which, following redrawing of the boundaries, will be part of the proposed 90 seats of J&K Assembly and five parliamentary constituencies.
The Commission, in its proposals, has increased seven assembly segments, six in Jammu and one in Kashmir division. The number of Parliamentary constituencies remains static i.e., five though they have to witness massive reconfiguration of boundaries.
Among the major changes in the parliamentary constituencies, one LS segment in its new geographical format i.e., Anantnag-Rajouri will be spread to both Kashmir and Jammu divisions. However, no LS segment has been declared reserved. As per proposals, out of 90 assembly segments (43 in Jammu division, 47 in Kashmir division), sixteen constituencies will be reserved.