Justifying the ongoing agitation for carving a new district of Nowshera out of the sprawling Rajouri district along the Line of Control (LoC), the Bharatiya Janata Party that is ruling Jammu and Kashmir in partnership with the PDP on Thursday demanded four to five new districts in the Jammu division whose geographical area was “about 70 per cent more than that of Kashmir valley.”
Nowshera is witnessing a violent agitation in support of district status of the area and setting up the office of additional deputy commissioner was not acceptable to residents of the area.
In a hard-hitting statement, Prof Virender Gupta, spokesperson of the BJP, said “with area about 70 per cent more than that of Kashmir Valley, having hilly and tough terrain Jammu province needs at least 4 to 5 more districts, from their present strength of 10”.
He said that the present agitation in Nowshera for the creation of district and demand of the people of other areas of the province for the formation of new districts looks to be genuine one, while looking on the previous process of creation of new districts.
He appealed to the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to do an honest exercise to address the issue. He narrated that Kashmir had three districts before June 1979 and Jammu region had six districts, but with one stroke the then State Government created 3 more districts in the Valley, without constituting any commission.
Prof Gupta said that in Kashmir Valley the districts with very small areas like Kulgam, Bandipura, Shopian and Ganderbal were created. He said that Shopian which was made district in 2006 has an area of 312 sq Km with only one Tehsil under it, as per 2011 census.