- After 1947 Distant/ Backward areas & People of J&K have not been given fair nearness to Segments in Administration
- Even after 1947 Distant/ Backward areas & People of J&K have not been given fair nearness to Segments in Administration
- People of Distant & Backward Areas lacking due Political & Adm. Empowerment keep falling back in Growth
DAYA SAGAR
In a democratic republic like India District administrative unit ( District) is in general taken into consideration forever all broader prospective planning and allocation of plan finds. It will not be wrong to say that keeping ‘plan allocation & related deeds’ in view the areas falling in Jammu Division of J&K would surely have possibly remained under more of disadvantage. Just for an idea sake it would be appropriate to quote here that including the areas illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947/48 the then Jammu province had 5district administrative units ( Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Mirpur) and two Jagirs (Poonch, almost like the level of a district, and of Chenani) where as the Kashmir province (excluding Ladakh & frontier areas Gilgit /Baltistan) had only 3 District Administrative units.( Anantnag, Baramulla, Muzaffarabad ). After 1947, for active administration, the unoccupied areas of J&K excluding Mirpur District of Jammu province & a very small part of Poonch jagir were reorganized into 6 six District Administrative units of Jammu Division (Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch) ; the 2 remaining districts of Anantnag &Baramulla werereoganised as only 3 districts of Anantnag, Srinagar & Baramulla in Kashmir Division and ofcourse Ladakh too was a district of Kashmir Division. So upto 1978 there were 6 districts in Jammu Division and in Kashmir Division there were only 3 Districts of Kashmir Valley in Kashmir Division.
But the reorganizations of district administrative units as were done by National Conference Government in 1979 (SRO 306 of 6/6/1979 ) and Congress -PDP Government in 2006-07 ( (SRO 185 of 22 May 2007 ) which would fail any independent logical test since 3 districts of Kashmir valley in Kashmir Division had been in 1979 increased to 6 and then again in 2007 from 6 to 10 where as the then 6 existing districts of Jammu Division had not been increased further in 1979 and it was only in 2007 that districts were increased and that too only from 6 to10.
To have a rational view of the need that emerged after 2007 for carving out more new districts in the state of Jammu &Kashmir for correcting the wrongs done by the SRO 185 of 22 May 2007 wherein a district like Rajouri with 7 Tehsils was not split in more districts where as in Kashmir Division a new district like that of Shopian with only one Tehsil was carved out.
In this regard for adopting a fair approach to apply corrections now worth satisfying the people of the areas that feel neglected it would be better toalso see the number of Tehsils and Niyabats that were there in the 10 Districts of Kashmir Valley and 10 districts of Jammu Division before the issue of order No. Rev(s)169 of 18-07-2014 for creating more Tehsils. In 2006-07 for instance Rajouri District of Jammu Region already had 7 Tehsils spread over 2630 sq km( Census 2011 data) but this district was not split in more districts where as in Kashmir valley districts like i. Ganderbal with 3 tehsils and 258 sq km area ( 2011 census) ii. Shupian with only 1 tehsil and just an area of *312 sq Km (Census 2011 data) (iii) Bandipora with 3 tehsils and area of just 345 sq km (iv) Kulgam with 3 tehsils and are of just 410 sq km ( census 2011) were created. ( * different areas have been mentioned at different times / in different reports/ sites and actual area may be different but surely not much.
There seems enough scope for raising the number of districts in Jammu Division from 10 to 15 or so but keeping only 10 in Kashmir Division taking leads from the size & status of existing districts in Kashmir Valley. It was expected in 2015 that BJP-PDP popular / elected Government would apply the corrections but no any step was taken in that direction.
Irrational reorganizations of District Administrative Units had been done in erstwhile state of J&K by ‘elected governments’ in 1979 (1979 (SRO 306 of 6/6/1979) and 2007 (SRO 185 of 22 May 2007). Now in 2025 also is there elected Government in J&K ( though a UT now ) so corrections could be applied by appointing a high power Reorganisation Commission (with some private members also) by Omar Abdullah Government before more Divisions are created to settle the demands backward /demanding areas so as to bring the administration more near to the common man in areas of Bani/Basohli/ Billawar, Nowshera/ Sunderbani/ Kalakot, Akhnoor ; Rajouri, Buddal/ Mendhar; Mohore/Gool, Ramnagar; Bhaderwah / Thathri/ Gandoh, Gulabgarh/Paddar, Hiranagar, R.S.Pura; Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar , Bani, Basoli and the like as was done in 2007( (SRO 185 of 22 May 2007 ) for Kashmir Division . By doing so the administrative bottlenecks would be surely dismantled to great extent and people in the neglected areas would surely feel empowered worth making their demands well represented. Indicators for likely possible final status do reflect from the Table -A given here in.
LG Sh. Manoj Sinha too would surely support any logical proposal to correct the wrongs in reorganizations done as regards District Administrative units well taking leads also from Wazir Commission which had recommended in 1984 to increase the six districts of Kashmir valley from 6to7 and that in Jammu Division from 6to 9 and so erroneously the PDP-Congress government had increased the districts from 6 to 10 in Kashmir Valley as against from 6to 7 recommended by Wazir Commission in 1984.
(The writer is a Sr Journalist & analyst of J&K Affairs)