Baramulla: The members of Civil Society Rafiabad Baramulla have raised objections to proposed re-naming of Rafiabad constituency and redrawing of its electoral map by including Zaingeer area in the constituency.
The objections have been submitted to the Delimitation Commission with the hope that those are considered by the panel.
The Delimitation Commission in its draft proposal has changed the assembly segment “Rafiabad” to “Rohama Rafiabad” to which locals have expressed strong reservation. While filing objection to the prefix ‘Rohama” added to the existing Rafiabad assembly segment, the civil society members said that the proposal is not acceptable to the locals here.
They said there are several villages in Rafiabad constituency and adding a particular village name as prefix to the existing constituency of legislative assembly, Rafiabad, is unacceptable to the people of the area.
“There are 77 villages in the administrative division Rafiabad,” said Peerzada Javed, member of civil society Rafiabad.
“By adding a particular village out of 77 villages as prefix will annoy people of other villages. The previous assembly constituency name itself represents the aspiration of people of entire 77 villages,” added Javed.
The civil society members have also termed the redrawing of electoral boundary as “unrealistic” and “impracticable.” They said in the delimitation proposed draft the panel has added Zaingeer area of Sopore to the proposed assembly segment “ Rohama Rafiabad”, despite the area being close to Sopore assembly segment.
They said instead of the Zaingeer block, the Kralgund area should have been added while redrawing the electoral boundary of the constituency. They said Kralgund village in past had been part of the erstwhile Rafiabad assembly segment.
“The Kralgund area as per topography and feasibility is close to the Rafiabad constituency. While Zaingeer block is close to the Sopore constituency. The electoral boundary of the constituency should be redrawn on the parameters of its electoral usefulness and viability. As such we have pitched for the inclusion of the Kralgund area to the delimitation draft panel,” said Basharat Ahmad, of civil society Rafiabad.
In Baramulla district, Gulmarg and Sangrama are no longer there in the proposed draft and two new seats, Tangmarg and Kunzer, have been created by redrawing boundaries of old seats.