As is need for Delimitation of LA Segments before elections so is need for Reorganisation of districts before Delimitation
Daya Sagar
After the issuance of Notification 5th August 2019 G.S.R 551(E)- Ministry of Law and Justice The Constitution ( Application to Jammu and Kashmir ) order C.O 272 of date 05-08-2019 under the provisions of Art 370 (1) of Constitution of India and with the enactment of Act N0:34 of 2019 -The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act in August 2019 providing for the reorganisation of the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and that of Ladakh, and the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, it was hoped that the fair corrections shall be soon applied to the common man related administrative and legislative issues of J&K that had nearly for 7 decades remained to the disadvantage of the under privileged areas & people , socio-economically backward segments of local masses ( it will not be an over statement to say that even to the disadvantage of the areas/ lands ) and to be brief people living in the backward/ distantly placed /poorly connected / bad terrain areas of J&K State, may it be in Kashmir Region or Jammu Region, may it be Hindu populated or Muslim populated areas like remotes of Doda/ Udhampur /Kathua/Rajouri/Reasi/Poonch/Kupwara/Baramulla and like.
In the democratic set up that we have in India the politics of vote catching that has been prevailing particularly in J&K was more woven with the fiber of religion & region centered controversies and had been strangulating the innocent masses worth not allowing them to sense the ill designs of the people who pretended to be the savior of common man but kept even the high density Muslim areas of Jammu Region (what to talk areas dominated by other communities ) too stripped of their due/ legitimate administrative and legislative rights/ voice by building such an environment where in any questions raised on those who ruled the roost were instead miscarried as a question raised on the Muslim community of J&K.
To quote when ever and where ever questions were raised on irrational establishment of District Administrative units (Areas falling in Jammu Region had 6 District Administrative units in 1978 and in 2020 there are 10 District Administrative Units in Jammu Region where as the areas falling in Kashmir Region had just 3 District administrative units in 1978 and in 2020 there too Districts have been increased from3 to 10 .In princely State of Jammu and Kashmir before 1947 there were 5 Districts + One Poonch Jagir administered like a District + one Chenani Jagir and District of Mirpur was lost to POJK still leaving behind nearly equivalent of 5 Districts – including Poonch Jagir + small Jagir of Chenani unoccupied. Whereas Kashmiri Region had only 3 Districts of which one District of Muzaffrabad was occupied by Pakistan leaving just 2 Districts in the unoccupied area ) or as regards the unfair Delimitation of single member segments of Legislative Assembly ( Even when Section 50 of J&K Constitution constitutionally provided 14 out of 28 elected MLC to areas falling in Jammu Region as against only 12 MLC to Kashmir region the Delimitation Commission in 1995 so irrationally distributed only 37 MLAs over the areas falling in Jammu region and 46 MLAs over areas falling in Kashmir valley.
Not only that the delimitation in common fair wisdom totally ignored the guiding parameters laid down in Section- 4, Sub Section -2 of J&K Representation the People Act of 1957) that did not appear matching the democratic ethos enshrined in constitution of J&K as well as the J&K RP Act 1957 for providing representative of nearness in the legislature or the administrator of nearness , to be particular a revenue / community block officer , to common man keeping in view particularly the distantly placed people of the areas like that located in districts of Doda/ Kishtwar/ Udhampur/ Kupwara/Baramulla/Kathua/Rajouri/Reasi/Kargil and like the same have been though also more in the interest of both Muslim and Hindu of J&K, the dominant political leadership has been succeeding in diverting attention of the common masses away from the real spirits by dragging the issues in religion/ region based controversies.
So in case one examines the present status of district administrative units as well as the JK Assembly Segments in J&K one would surely find that it has been of no less disadvantage to even the Muslims of both the regions staying in distant/ bad / remote areas ( no doubt more such people / areas lie in Jammu region), It has been due to the politicians succeeding in pushing demands for fair treatment in administration and in legislature into Hindu Muslim conflict zones that even the people from the of areas like Baramulla and Kupwara, too though have been given irrational treatment as regards establishment of administrative units / providing MLAs, have not been raising questions of significance and all such demands raised from Jammu Region ( where too in affected areas large Muslim population is there) were dubbed as anti Muslim / anti Kashmir Valley wooing the innocent masses of Kashmir valley away from the real issues.
(Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalist and analyst of J&K affairs [email protected])