Even after 1947 Distant/ Backward areas & people of J&K are not being given fair nearness to segments in Administration & Legislature

1st unfair onslaught was made in 1951 and 7th unfair onslaught is in process in 2020

Daya Sagar

The people and areas of erstwhile districts of J&K of pre 1947 days as that of Baramulla, Reasi, Kathua, Udhampur, Poonch (Jagir administered from Jammu) , Ladakh or in other words we can say erstwhile districts of pre 1978 days like that of Baramulla, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri, Poonch, Ladakh etc have not been fairly treated constitutionally, administratively and as regards locating centers of local community development even after independence. The politicians have been carrying on their “business” keeping the innocent masses trapped in the web of rivalries of regional or accession related controversies and at occasions also making people enter into religion based controversies creating some ideological ravines even amongst the locals in of same region. We often find many people reasoning the shortfalls in the economic & infrastructural development as well as representation in Legislature & in Executive / Administration , particularly that of Jammu region, being there for the reasons of religious demography ( J&K being a Muslim majority state ) but that is not logically that true since even the areas outside Kashmir Valley that have reasonably large Muslim population have remained devoid of fair constitutional, administrative and community development units.
First post independence onslaught was made in 1951 when Units/ Seats in the Constituent Assembly were distributed over the areas of J&K other than occupied by Pakistan) denying due representation to areas falling in the then Districts of Baramulla, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda , Rajouri, Poonch, Ladakh i.e 43 to areas in Kashmir valley and only 32 to areas outside Kashmir valley ( even share to Baramulla district was not fair). Not only that, the same irrational allocations were retained even after in 1957 Section-50 was incorporated in Constitution of J&K with Section-50 of J&K Constitution there in providing 2 elected MLCs for Ladakh,12 MLC for Districts of Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla; and 14 MLC for Districts of Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri, & Poonch and also after J&K Representation of People’s Act 1957 was enacted laying down pointedly the parameters for delimitation of Legislative Assembly segments /MLAs {Section-4, Sub Section-2 Clause-a (i): Population Clause-a (ii): Geographical Compactness Clause- a (iii): Nature of terrain Clause – a (iv): Facilities of Communication Clause-a (v): And the like considerations which} which surely hinted for more MLAs to areas that had been given on 30 members in the Constituent Assembly.
The 2ndpost independence onslaught on the people of the then Districts of Baramulla, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu was inflicted when they were proportionately denied nearness to District Administrative Units (local administration) (districts) in 1979 the way 3 new districts were created in Kashmir valley under SRO 306 of 6/6/1979 increasing districts in Kashmir valley from 3 to 6 but keeping the pre 1979 number (6)unchanged in Jammu Region and increasing in Ladakh districts from 1 to 2.
3rdThird onslaught was made even when in 1984 Wazir Commission (WC) recommended for increasing the Districts in Jammu Region from 6 to 9 and in Kashmir Region from 6 to 7 (one new in Baramulla district ) but the recommendations were not implemented (though still were not as per demands of neglected areas).
The 4rth onslaught was when the Delimitation of Legislative Assembly that was started in 1981 (vide SRO No; 537 of 02-12-1981 )with Justice J N Wazir, Retd. CJ of J&K HC, as Chairman was concluded with Justice K K Gupta as Chairman by ordering in April 1995 46 MLAs in favour of areas of districts of Anantnag, Pulwama , Srinagar, Budgam, Baramulla & Kupwara that had only 12 elected MLCs and only 37 for areas in districts of Kathua , Udhampur, Doda, Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch once again in total defiance to parameters laid in J&K RPA Act 1957 which if fairly applied would have distributed 45 or so MLAs over the areas falling in districts of Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch out of increased strength of 87.
5th unfair onslaught on the erstwhile districts of J&K of pre 1978 days like that of Baramulla, Kathua, Udhampur , Doda , Rajouri, Poonch , Ladakh etc comprising distance/ backward people was made through SRO 185 of 22 May 2007 when Kashmir region was given 300 % more than the districts recommended in 1984 by Wazir Commission increasing the Districts from 6 to 10 and Jammu region was given only 33 % more than what WC had recommended(1984)there to just increasing districts from 6 to 10 only where as by method of proportions Districts in Jammu Region should have been increased to 15 to 16 Districts and Baramulla & Kupwara needed to be split into atleast 4 districts instead of 3.
Since 2007 there have been repeated demands and requests for reorganizing the district administrative units in J&K, particularly Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla, Bondipora, Kupwara etc even before going for the new exercise for Delimitation of Single member segments of Legislative Assembly of J&K State / UT of J&K but have gone unheard. It is otherwise also needed before any new Delimitation of increased ( from 83 to 90) Assembly Segments for doing justice to Section-60 Act34 of 2019.
6th onslaught was inflicted when the Press Note No. ECI/PN/51/2020 Dated: 24thAugust, 2020 of Election Commission of India was issued about locating the office of Delimitation Commission for Assembly of UT of J&K in Ashoka Hotel complex New Delhi and PTI quoting the Commission sources informed that the Delimitation Commission has debarred any reorganization of District Administrative units even in the case of UT of J&K till Delimitation of Assembly segments is completed which surely has been unfair and may not test to the jurisdiction of the Delimitation Commission constituted by the Election Commission / Government of India in terms of Act No 34 of 2019 where Sub- Section-2 of Section-60 also says <” In determining the matters referred to in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1), the Election Commission shall have regard to the following provisions, namely:-.(b) all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, regard shall be had to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public;.” So more was and is the need to reorganize Districts before taking up Delimitation of LA Segments for new Elections.
And things did not stop there when the 7th onslaught has been inflicted on the legislative / executive rights of the backward/ distantly located areas / people of UT of J&K by MHA on 16th October 2020 through ORDER 2020 S.O. 3654(E) -The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Fourth Order, 2020- amending the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 (Act No. IX of 1989) so as to replace “District Planning and Development Board” by The District Development Council – DDC ( which of course is a welcome amendment ) but it has been very unfair to at the same time so unfairly / strangely Section-45A -(iii) says that elected members of every District Development Councilshall be fourteen in number. By that standard may it be Shopian District that had only one Tehsil in 2007 or may it be Rajouri District that had 7 Tehsils in 2007 or Jammu or Baramulla or Kathua or Udhampur or Kupwara all will have 14 members each.
Population carries only a fraction of weightage for State/ UT Legislative Assembly segments well reflects from the fact for electing the President of India a MLA of UP has a vote value of 208 in comparison to a MLA of erstwhile J&K state carried vote value of only 72where as Sikkim carried just 7. The Census -2011 figures which have been put under question mark by some surely too do matter but that cannot much strip off the backward/ distant areas and people their access to Legislature more than what can the delimitation do in case other parameters are not fairly used which would carry the damage to atleast 6 to 7 years more.
So far more sufferers have been the people of the then (2006) districts of Kathua, Udhampur ( now Udhampur & Reasi) , Doda ( now Doda , Kishtwar, Ramban), Jammu ( now Jammu & Samba), Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla (now Baramulla & Bandipore), Kupwara. “Delhi” too had been keeping fair eye only more on the men & materials beyond the ‘tunnel’.
(Daya Sagar – Sr Journalist and social activist [email protected])