The J&K unit of Congress on Monday staged a protest against the delimitation commission urging the visiting team to provide sufficient time to the party so that it can highlight the “irregularities” in its draft report in a proper way.
The protest led by Pradesh Congress Committee president GA Mir was staged at the beginning of the public hearing of the delimitation commission on its report which was made public last month.
The commission headed by Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai reached here on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. The delegation started interacting with delegations from across the Jammu region on Monday morning and they are scheduled to visit Srinagar later in the day for a similar exercise on Tuesday.
Carrying placards and shouting slogans, the Congress activists led by Mir and other senior party leaders including former ministers and legislators assembled outside their party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk in the heart of Jammu city and staged a sit-in against the delimitation commission.
“We are holding this peaceful protest against the delimitation commission over its draft report which is against settled norms, ground situations, and containing large-scale irregularities,” Mir said.
The Commission had invited claims and suggestions from all political parties, organizations, and individuals from March 14 to 21 after putting the draft report in the public domain.
The Commission had received over 400 suggestions and objections which were in addition to those already received from five Associate Members including Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma, both BJP MPs from Jammu division, and Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone, and Hasnain Masoodi, all three National Conference MPs from Kashmir.
“We have submitted detailed objections to the commission and want the commission to hear us for the benefit of the aggrieved population. We have not been given any time that shows they are fulfilling the formalities to put a public stamp on their report made at the behest of BJP,” Mir said.
Suggesting the commission to extend their stay in Jammu and Kashmir by one more day to give sufficient time to all parties, especially Congress to explain its objections before it, Mir claimed that the report had given tension to the public as it was prepared in violation of the set parameters and rules like population, terrain, and means of communication.
Terming the report as “highly objectionable”, Mir said several constituencies have less than 50,000 voters while others have more than 1.50 lakh.
He said Congress was hoping for one more Lok Sabha seat for the Jammu region but the commission’s readjustment of the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat and the inclusion of Rajouri and Poonch districts in it is “most unreasonable” and against the public interests and convenience.
“There are several irregularities and violations which need to be fully reviewed and reconsidered but the Commission is merely doing an eyewash to complete the formality,” he said.
Meanwhile, a BJP delegation led by the state party chief Ravinder Raina met the delimitation commission and urged it to settle people’s issues especially the redressal of Ghagwal, Rajpura, Samba, Gurha Salathia, Maralia, Suchetgarh, Pargwal, Chamb, Mera-Mandrian, Chowki-Chowra, sunderbani, Doongi and Poonch constituencies.
The BJP delegation said that various issues raised by the general masses as well as the party activists were discussed in detail and the same has been submitted to the Delimitation Commission.