Jammu, Feb 8: Various political parties including Congress, National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the banner of Joint Action Committee Tuesday put a united face in Jammu district to reject the Delimitation Commission’s draft report.
They demanded review of the report and sought Schedule Tribe status for Nagrota assembly constituency. The Nagrota constituency in the draft report submitted to the members of Delimitation Commission included Bhalwal and it was not reserved for the ST. Holding a joint news conference in Jammu, Congress, NC leader and BDC Chairperson Choudhary Rehmat Ali, senior PDP leader Choudhary Hamid and other social activists opposed the bifurcation in Nagrota constituency and demanded that the constituency should be reserved for STs.
Hamid said that Congress, NC, PDP and social activists had joined them in their struggle for the rights of ST community and Nagrota constituency.
“The commission did no ground work and framed the draft report without consulting the representatives,” he said. “Bhalwal was included in Nagrota assembly constituency which is unjustified. Nagrota constituency has a majority of ST population. We were expecting ST reservation from this assembly constituency. However, some of our revenue villages and panchayats including Athem, Bain-Bajalta, Sandhi, Sidhra, Ragura, Dawara, and Jagti were excluded from Nagrota constituency and included in Jammu East in an unjustified manner.” Hamid also questioned the change in the name of Gandhi Nagar constituency to Jammu South. He said that they would oppose the draft and present their representation before the commission.
“It seems to be a well-planned conspiracy to separate constituencies being dominated by the ST community and to benefit a political party,” he said.