Fill The Seats: Time for PoJK refugees to claim assembly seats

National

In a letter to Amit Shah, PoJK refugees urged him to defreeze 8 of the 24 seats in the J&K assembly that were intended to represent areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In the campaign NewsX has been supporting since 2019, this is a huge development.

Due to their location in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 24 seats in the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly remain empty. Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is composed of 111 members who are directly elected from territorial constituencies inside the state in accordance with Article 47 of its constitution.

However, there are now 87 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. Lok Sabha forbids a Parliament seat in PoK notwithstanding India’s declaration that it is a part of J&K.

According to SOS International’s Chief Rajiv Chunni in an interview with NewsX stated, “I have issued this letter solely to warn the government of these facts so that no error should be repeated whenever this measure comes up for a vote in parliament. This time, I believe POJK refugees will become more powerful.”

In order to debate delimitation with all parties, the prime minister organised a meeting.

The former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Kavinder Gupta, stated to a NewsX reporter that PM listened to everyone and everyone was enthusiastic about the delimitation.

Ravinder Sharma, the leader of the J&K Congress, stated, “Our demand is that there should be seating reservations and re-election instead of nomination.”

Additionally, Nirmal Singh, a former deputy Chief Minister for Jammu and Kashmir, said, “We are pleased that the delimitation panel has offered at least 2 seats for Kashmiri displaced and some seats for PoJK refugees.”

Since 2019, a number of panellists have participated in lengthy discussions on NewsX about the problem of PoJK migrants.

Witnessing PoJK refugees take the oath in front of the parliament has the potential to write history.