J&K has not so far seen even any fair reorganisation of district administrative units

By admin On Sep 14, 2022

*Some people may still allege discrimination, will LG Sinha undo SRO 306 of 1979/SRO 185 of 2007 & prove them wrong*
*Let there be rationalisation of District Administrative units of UT of J&K, people looking at LG for that*

DAYA SAGAR

After a fair representation to people in Legislative Assembly the 2nd most important factor of greater public interest is carving out of the District Administrative units ( commonly known as Districts) since at State Level-sectored cum inter-district / inter-regional planning is done keeping District in immediate focus.
The erstwhile state of J&K had taken to a regular democratic system of governance only in 1957 when the J&K Constitution was adopted and was also enacted the J&K Representation of People Act 1957 for distribution of 75 members of Legislative Assembly ( MLAs) over the areas of J&K to be elected through direct election and thereafter the members of Legislative Assembly were to elect 14 members for Legislative Council ( MLCs) from areas of Jammu Region, 12 members of Legislative Council for areas falling in Kashmir Valley and 2 MLCs for areas falling in Ladakh region in terms of Section-50 of J&K Constitution. Keeping in view the region wise allocation of elected MLCs under Section-50 of J&K Constitution and there then being 6 District Administrative units in Jammu Region and only 3 District Administrative units in Kashmir Valley it was expected that after 1961 through a proper delimitation of segments of Legislative Assembly more MLAs will be distributed over the areas of State falling in the then six districts of Rajouri, Poonch Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur and Doda than over the three districts of Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla that constitutionally were to have lesser elected MLCs than those outside Kashmir Valley.
But those who held the first reigns of governance in Indian state of J&K on adhoc basis were mostly from Kashmir Valley and did set their priorities more on holding to power seats than common welfare and hence did not hold to the constitutional truths laid in Section-4 of J&K Representation of People’s Act 1957 and instead first distributed 43 MLAs ( later 42 ) out of 75 over 3 districts of Kashmir Valley and only 30 MLAs ( later 31) over the 6 districts of Jammu Region.
People from districts of Rajouri, Poonch, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda had been peacefully agitating agitated. Later on, as an attempted eye wash, after constitutionally getting increased the total MLA seats open for election to 76 in 1975 the seats outside Kashmir valley in Jammu region were arbitrarily made 32 with Kashmir Region 42 and Ladakh Region 2 totally ignoring the fact that Jammu Region had constitutionally 14 elected MLCs and Kashmir region had only 12 elected MLCs. The process did not see a change even when delimitations commissions were appointed after that.
The process had not end there and the Valley centric government to create illusions , for an outside observer/ government of India agencies, arbitrarily increased (SRO 306 of 6/6/1979 ) the districts in Kashmir valley that had much lesser area, much better terrain, much better connectivity from 3 ( Anantnag, Srinagar, Baramulla) to 6 (Anantnag, Pulwama, Srinagar, Badgam, Baramulla, Kupwara) there by making number equal (6) to Jammu Region
In late seventies the people of distant/ backward areas of Jammu Region had agitated against the irrational reorganisation of districts done vide SRO 306 of 6/6/1979 increasing the districts in Kashmir valley from 3 to 6 forcing the then elected government of J&K State to appoint a Commission under justice J N Wazir (1981) which had recommended in 1984 that districts in Jammu Region be increased from 6 to 9 and that in Kashmir valley from 6 to only 7 but even that recommendation was not implemented even when people outside Kashmir valley demanded atleast 10 -11 districts in Jammu region keeping in view that Jammu Region already had 6 districts before June 1979..
People of Jammu Region kept on peacefully hoping that if not 10 to11 atleast the Wazir Commission recommendations for increasing the districts to 9 in Jammu region shall be executed but so strangely in 2006-07 the Congress- PDP government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad ji through SRO 185 of 22 May 2007 although increased the districts in Jammu Region from 6 to 10 ( Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban against Wazir commission recommendation to increase from 6 to 9 but so irrationally at the same time the districts in Kashmir Valley were also increased from 6 to 10 ( Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Srinagar, Ganderbal, Badgam, Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara ) as against Wazir commission recommendation for increasing from 6 to 7. Once again the people of distant backward areas mostly outside Kashmir valley like Poonch, Rajouri, Kathua, Udhampur and Doda were unfairly treated. Government in Delhi too did not send any corrective advice to the State Government. Kashmir region was given 300% more ( 4 against 1 recommended ) than what Wazir Commission recommended in 1984 and Jammu region was given just 33% more than Wazir commission recommendations (4 against 3 recommended).
People of J&K have seen 6 Elected governments after 1979 and 2 more elected governments after 2007 but no government has extended justice to people outside Kashmir valley who surely deserved 4 to 6 more districts than Kashmir valley keeping in view that 3 districts of Kashmir valley had been reorganised after 1978 to increase number from 3 to10 where as the districts of Jammu Region have been increased from 6 to only 10.
Some districts in Valley may be very small but it may not be possible to reverse faulty reorganisations so the correction can be applied only by increasing districts outside Kashmir Valley in UT of J&K..
People outside Kashmir valley have been surely looking at LG Manoj Sinha with great hopes for atleast undoing the unfair treatment meted to them in the past, particularly as regards representation in the Legislative Assembly and positioning of district Administrative units.
Anyhow as regards the Legislature Manoj Sinha can notnow get applied any needed corrections regarding distribution of MLA in Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K since the Delimitation Commission 2020 has already issued final orders in 2022 again allocating lesser seats in the Legislative assembly of UT of J&K to areas that had constitutionally more elected MLCs in the Legislative council of J&K State which now is possible only after 2031.
Anyhow as regards rationalisation of District Administrative units Manoj Sinha can surely still do that, The unfair treatment that the areas outside Kashmir Valley have received after 1947 could well be seen by LG UT of J&K from the brief being quoted here in. Keeping in view the performance of elected governments of past and even the fate of agitations done in past by people of Rajouri district in 2017-18 hopes for justice still rest more in LG Manoj Sinha in whom the common man has started seeing signs of a “caring and daring” person. Will He do ?

(The author is a Sr Journalist & analyst of J&K Affairs. [email protected]).