REPLY TO MANY CONFUSIONS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE by Prof. Virender Gupta is President Jammu State Morcha (Progressive)

REPLY TO MANY CONFUSIONS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE by
Prof. Virender Gupta is President Jammu State Morcha (Progressive)

October 9, 2008 • 10:54 pm 17
REPLY TO MANY CONFUSIONS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE

BY PROF. VIRENDER GUPTA
Prof. Virender Gupta is President Jammu State Morcha (Progressive) and an original thinker who has been fighting for the rights of the people of Jammu region since 1990.


The voice of division of Jammu and Kashmir State was raised first by the Kashmiri Muslims in 1924 who launched an agitation demanding scraping of Amritsar Treaty. The ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’ against Dogras and Dogra Ruler, Mahraja Hari Singh was also aimed at separating Kashmir Valley from other parts of the state. 

Now if Jammu Province and Ladakh region want to get rid of political, administrative domination of Kashmiri rulers, what is wrong in it? Why are Kashmiris opposing this? It is Kashmiri leadership who always followed communal, parochial, secessionist and anti-Jammu policies. 

What was the reason that Kashmiri leadership did not allow the refugees from Muzaffarabad (which was part of Kashmir province) to settle in the Valley in 1947, though they are now agitating and demanding opening of Muzaffarabad route and trade with POK through this route? 

Why only Muslim refugees from Tibet were given shelter in the Valley and made state subjects of the state where as refugees from West Pakistan who were Hindus and Sikhs have been denied state subject status. 

Why Kashmiri Pandits, Dogras and Panjabis were forced to migrate from Valley after 1947 and in particular after 1990 when mass exodus of these communities took place? Installation of Mahatma Gandhi’s statute in the High Court premises was opposed by the Kashmir Bar Association and the so called secular Kashmiri leaders, why? 

The Library in Srinagar could not be named after Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, but the Kashmiri leaders gave their consent for naming it after Abdul Kalam Azad. Kashmiri Muslims alone are free to settle, work and live anywhere they like, but this is not true about Dogras, Ladakahis ( including muslims of these regions) and even Kashmiri Pandits. 

The behaviour of Kashmiri leadership including N.C (Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah) on the issue of Shri Amaranth Shrine land issue exposed its communal, parochial, fundamentalist and anti- India and anti Jammu mindset. The statements like, ‘Kashmir Sovereignty’, ‘Designs to change the demography of Kashmir by settling the Hindus at Baltal, ‘Not an inch of land be given till the last Kashmiri survive’, ‘When N.C comes to power the Shrine Board would be dissolved’, ‘ It was a blunder committed by Sheikh Mohamed Abdullah by accepting the accession of Kashmir with India’ were issued by none other than the N.C leaders, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.

The industrial growth in Jammu region is through private ventures only and the Kashmiri leadership has always tried to discourage this growth. All the Public Sector undertakings are located in Kashmir. These include Television Factory, Telephone Factory, HMT Watch Factory, Cement Factory and now recently inaugurated Steel Factory. Besides, there are number of cottage industries and handicrafts ventures, which are being promoted to the best possible extent by the State as well as Central Government authorities, besides highly flourishing Tourism and Horticulture Industries.


It may be reminded that opening of Mata Vaishno Devi University, the Agriculture University and Engineering College and construction of Fly-Over were done during the Governor’s rule of Krishna Rao. Engineering College in Jammu started when outside student and the staff were terrorized to leave REC in the Kashmir Valley. 

The development of Bahu Plaza Complex that contains the buildings of J&K Bank Head Quarter, Nirman Bhavan, Vikas Bhavan was envisaged and constructed during the Governor’s rule. 

Providing space to the offices and providing medical and infrastructural facilities are the routine works that does not form the part of the development. Widening of roads and four laning of National Highway were and are being done under the Prime- Minister’s Project of the central government. There is no International airport in Jammu yet though the same is desired. Kashmir Valley is not lagging behind in such development projects as it received more central grant than Jammu region. 

The data presented in articles promoted by Kashmiri leaders are misleading and far away from the reality. Whole of data presented is fabricated and manipulated. Following are some of the figures, which J&K Government presented in the State Assembly on January 22, 2007:



Civil Secreteriate Employees:



Total Jammu Prov. Kashmir Prov. Ladakh Region

Gazetted 299 108 191 -

Non Gazetted 1041 274 767 -

Fourth Class 363 107 256 -

Total Emloyees 1715 488 1214 12



Thus the share of Jammu in Gazetted and Non-Gazetted posts is 36.3 and 26.3 percent as against 63.7 and 73.7 percent. The share of Jammu in case of fourth-class employees is 29.48 percent as against 70.52 percent of Kashmir. Out of the total employees of nearly 4.5 lakh in the state 3.3 lakh belong to Kashmir Valley i.e. about 7 persons out of every one hundred persons in Kashmir are holding positions in the Government and Semi- Government Departments.


The data given about various positions occupied by the I.A.S, I.P.S and K.A.S. officers are misleading and is not correct. However this should be born in mind that person directly recruited in the I.A.S or I.P.S. cadre belonging to Jammu region or Kashmir region are deputed from the centre pool of the respective services, their strength cannot counted as officers from the Jammu region or from Kashmir.

Unemployment: Till September 2006, the Government Employment Exchange registered 35,329 unemployed youth in Kashmir where as this number was 63,613 in Jammu Province. Thus the rate of unemployment in Kashmir is about 30% as against 70% in Jammu Province. The number of unemployed Post- Graduate in Jammu Province is 5,421 as against 2,474 in Kashmir. In Jammu district the Post Graduate unemployed is 4, 444 as against 605 in Kashmir district, i.e. about 7 times more than Kashmir district. The number of unemployed youth holding technical degrees is 11,861 in Jammu Province as against 6,370 in Srinagar Province, thus about two times more than Kashmir Province.



Allotment of Grants


PLAN
AGRICULT-URE

RS. CRORE

IRRIGATION

RS. CRORE
ROAD & BUILDING

RS. CRORE
HEALTH

RS. CRORE
TOURISM

RS. CRORE
SEWERAGE

Rs. CRORE

DRAINAGE

Rs. CRORE

HOUSING AND URBAN DEV.

Rs. CRORE
POWER

Rs. CRORE

JAMMU

8TH

KASHMIR
57.61



104.5
91.14



136.64
144.2



247.22


123.92



135.34
15.21



34.39
2.92



6.81


20.37



47.53
19.38



45.23
516.75



775.12

JAMMU

9 TH

KASHMIR
147.31 253.17
112.79



210.05
29.38



403.67
226.07



274.45
34.99



58.01


6.26



14.61
27.84



64.96
39.87



93.02
56.94



85.41

JAMMU

10 TH

KASHMIR
270.49



380.29
267.76



466.72
730.93



751.03


330.32



390.25
47.17



109.85
30.61



71.42
32.31



75.41
69.65



162.52
1154..3



1731.43

JAMMU

11 TH

KASHMIR
337.56

519.41


282.04



365.35
1229.24



1229.24
510.81



819.22
510.81



819.22
11.54



35.67
67.75



1091.61
279.4



518.88
3278.78



4918.17




The infrastructure package of 29, 000 crores was mostly spent on Kashmir Valley. The Jammu share was very marginal. Figure that Rs. 12531crore was allotted to Jammu Province is not correct. Out of this most of the Money allotted was for linking Kashmir through railways, for hydroelectric projects and for other projects concerning whole of the state. It may be mentioned that so for grants form the centre Jammu province received is merely 10% of the total grant allotted to J&K State, right from 1952.

Regarding road connectivity, up till 1996 Kashmir Valley has 15,853 sq km. land area with 7129 Km. road length where as Jammu region has 26,293 sq km. land area with road length 4571 Km. Thus in Kashmir road network covers about 50 percent of its area where as in Jammu it covers about 22 percent of its area. This is as per the report of Task Force on Development of Jammu and Kashmir, Government of India, November 2006, p-6. The data given by Ahmd. Veeri is totally false and incorrect.



Depriving Jammu region from its due share in the state legislature, in the Civil Secretariat and in other Government departments reflects its neglect in other areas of development. Even the Kashmiri leaders, including those of National Conference number of times themselves stated the fact that Jammu region has been neglected vis-à-vis Kashmir and promised to make special efforts to remove the disparities.

Prof. Virender Gupta is President Jammu State Morcha (Progressive) and an original thinker who has been fighting for the rights of the people of Jammu region since 1990.

Filed under: Articles by Prof Virender Gupta, Current Affairs, Discriminations with Jammu, Jammu blog, Jammu Emotions, JSM-P , discrimination with Jammu, Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh