State Morcha demanded reorganization of Jammu & Kashmir state

Jammu, September 16: Jammu State Morcha (P)  on Tuesday demanded reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir State into three states of Jammu, Ladakh and  Kashmir along with the creation of a Union Territory in the Valley for all those who suffered neglect and discrimination at the hands of Kashmiri leaders viz. Kashmir Pandits, Kashmiri Sikhs and other communities of Paharis & Gujjars .

Addressing a press conference  President of t he JSM (P) Prof Virendra Gupta said that   reorganization of the state  was the only viable solution would could meet the aspirations & interests of the people of Jammu, Ladakh & Kashmir alongwith Kashmiri Pandits & others.

Highlighting the issue of discrimination with Jammu Prof Gupta  made it clear that  Jammu State Morcha (P) would contest the forthcoming election in the state on the plank of reorganization of J&K State that includes the creation of separate Jammu State alongwith states of Ladakh & Kashmir, and a union territory for Kashmiri Pandits, Gujjars and Paharis carved out in the Kashmir Valley.

On the occasion he congratulated the entire population of Jammu Province for their Victory in this historic agitation under the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti .

To support his view point on the issue Prof Gupta presented comprehensive data to highlight the grim realities and discrimination with Jammu in all sectors.

He said the Jammu Province possesses almost 50% of the state’s population and an area 1.7 times of the Kashmir Valley, which is a more difficult and inaccessible terrain. Jammu Province has 37 seats in the state assembly & each assembly segment on an average represents 710 sq. Km area & 73 thousands voters, whereas Kashmir Province has 346 sq. Km area and 55 thousand voters for each assembly segment. In the Civil Secretariat, representation of the people of Jammu region is less than 15% & overall only 25% in the total State Government services. About 70% of the total unemployed youth registered in the state is from Jammu Province. Jammu contributes over 70% of the state’s revenue whereas it gets only 20–30% of the total allocation of funds for development. Moreover only about 10% of funds available from the Government of India have been spent in the development works in Jammu province.

Tourism and Horticulture in Jammu Province have deliberately been neglected so that this region does not compete with the Kashmir valley.

He said road covered area of Jammu region is about 24 % against 55% in the Valley. Expenditure on the road network in Jammu region in the 8th and 9th plan remained Rs.14,418 lac and Rs.29,238 lac where it is Rs.24,722lac and Rs.40,368 lac in Kashmir Valley. This is inspite of the fact that Jammu has 170 times more area & difficult terrain than the valley and thus needs more expenditure for the construction of roads.

The tourism budget of 2007 shows that Jammu got only Rs.4 crore against Rs.20 crore allocated for the valley, i.e. only 16.66 percent of the total allocation. Total expenditure on Irrigation incurred in Jammu region in the 8th and 9th plan is Rs.6118 lac and Rs.8705 lac where as it is Rs.10,297 lac and Rs.15944 lac in Kashmir. In Horticulture about 90% expenditure of total funds was made in the valley in the 8th and 9th plan. Thus the Governments lead by Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad which boasted for equitable treatment for all the regions did not play a fair game with Jammu Province.