Confederation presents memorandum to Delimitation Commission over SC/ST demands
Jammu, 09.07.2021: All India Confederation of SC ST OBC Organisations presented a delegation to the Delimitation Commission at Jammu to discuss the issues of SC/STs. The delegation consisted of RK Kalsotra, State President, Er B L Bhardwaj, State General Secretary, Ch Mohd Shafi Bajjad, President District Jammu, and Ishtiaq Bhatti, State Co-ordinator.
The Delimitation Commission consisted of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, Chairperson, Delimitation Commission, Sushil Chandra, Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan, SEC UT-J&K, KK Sharma, and other dignitaries.
RK Kalsotra presented the demands of SC/STs in front of the commission. He congratulated the PM as well as the Delimitation Commission for taking up the task of bringing justice to the people of J&K.
Kaldotra demanded that the Commission should invite one associate member from the SC/ST of the UT for the remainder of its tenure, even if in the capacity of a non-participating observer. He added that the 2011 census is not reliable due to the manipulation of data in the Kashmir Valley. Everywhere in India the population share of SCs has increased over time as they have higher fertility than others due to socio-economic disadvantage. However, the share of Scheduled Castes in Jammu and Kashmir’s population has been decreasing without any major outmigration. Their share was 7.6 percent as per the 2001 Census, which declined to 7.38 per cent in 2011! This is contrary to the trend observed across the country. The same anomalies are there for STs.
Kalsotra also said that the delimitation be postponed for another year and be conducted soon after the provisional population totals of the next census are released. Otherwise, the Commission should first constitute an expert panel to correct the 2011 Census data and then carry our delimitation.
He added that the Commission should allot at least ten seats to SCs, special provisions for the West Pakistan Refugees, who largely belong to the Scheduled Caste communities. There should be one reserved seat in the assembly exclusively for them.
He further urged the Commission to ensure that the large ST population of the UT gets its due share both in Kashmir and Jammu. He said that the Commission should also protect the interests of the smaller tribes such as Gaddi and Sippi and allot one seat to them as well.
The demand to rotate all the existing reserved seats was also raised so that weaker sections can benefit from the reservation in areas where no assembly seat was ever reserved in the past. Lastly, a demand to reserve one Lok Sabha seat for the SC and ST put together to be contested by turns was added. Kalsotra suggested that the first turn should be given to ST and the second turn after five years to SC and so on.
Ishtiaq Bhatti, State Co-ordinator, further added that lakhs of tribals are not included in the census figures because of their migratory nature. Almost all census are faulty and do not capture the real figure of Tribals. In case a correct figure is released, it will be astonishing. And based on those figures, their share should be decided and seats be reserved.
