J-K govt to table 'LC seat reservation' Bill with consensus

The Jammu and Kashmir Government today said that an amendment bill regarding the reservation of seats in Legislative Council in view of upgradation of the status of few tehsils to that of district would be tabled in the Assembly after a political consensus is evolved.
"I assure the House that a bill in this regard would be brought in the House after evolving a political consensus," Minister of State for Technical Education, Vikar Rasool, said while replying to a Private Members Resolution moved by Congress legislator Ravinder Kumar Sharma.
Sharma had sought clearance of the ambiguity in the law relating to reservation of seats in J&K Legislative Council in view of upgradation of the status of Kargil and Leh tehsils to that of district and administrative bifurcation of the erstwhile district Doda and erstwhile district Poonch.

He said that out of the 36 seats in the Upper House, 22 are elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly, in which 11 each are from Kashmir and Jammu provinces.
Out of the 11 seats in Jammu province, one seat each was reserved for erstwhile district Doda and Poonch. While in Kashmir one seat each was reserved for Leh and Kargil keeping in view the backwardness of these areas, Sharma said.
The Congress MLC, however, added that in view of the further bifurcation of these areas into different districts there was no proper representation of these areas as had been mentioned in Section 50(2) of the State Constitution enacted in 1957.

Sharma said Doda was fragmented into three districts -- Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar -- but according to the law only a person from district Doda was eligible to contest for a seat in the Legislative Council whereas the people of Ramban and Kishtwar have been devoid of any such chance.

Similar is the case with Kargil, which has been turned into a district since then and has three tehsils under it, and Leh, which has also got status of district, Sharma said.
He added there was a need to amend the law to give the people of these areas a representation in the Upper House.

Nurboo Gialchan, Aga Syed Ahmad Rizvi and Devinder Singh Rana also presented their views on the resolution.
However, later on the assurance of the Government, Sharma withdrew the resolution and said that his intention was only to bring the ambiguity in the notice of the government.