An organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) on Saturday blamed the Centre and state government for delisting of over one lakh KPs from the voter list for forthcoming civil polls in Jammu.
All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) criticised the central and state governments for "hardly doing anything"for Kashmiri Migrants,
ASKPC said that during previous Congress-PDP rule in 2005, they were given voting rights for Municipal polls in Jammu but now denied by the BJP government.
"The government of India (GoI) and Governor rule in J&K has done biggest dis-service and right violation with displaced Kashmiri migrants. They have denied voting rights under a conspiracy by J&K election department to over one lakh KPs in forthcoming Municipal polls in Jammu in October this year", General Secretary of ASKPC, Dr T K Bhat told reporters here.
Kashmiri pandits, who are settled in migrants camps in Jammu and also in non camps areas for past 28 years, have been delisted from voter lists and denied voting rights in the name of being "migrants" by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K, Bhat said.
"During previous Congress-PDP rule in 2005, we voted inMunicipal polls in Jammu and one Kashmiri migrant lady was elected as corporate," he added.
Kashmiri displaced people living across the country in different state and towns including in Delhi, Pune, Mumbi, Banglore etc., are exercising their right of franchise in civil polls, but in Jammu, their kith and kin are denied right to vote on the plea of being migrant. What type of rule is this by Election Commission of India (ECI), he asked.
"ECI is deliberately denying us right to vote in Jammu in civil polls in October this year under a conspiracy, he alleged, calling it biggest human right violation.
All State Kashmiri Pandit conference (ASKPC) convened meeting of all heads of socio-political organization and social activists of the community here which was chaired by its president Advocate Ravinder Raina to chalk out strategy to deal with the issue.
The representative of major organizations who participated in the meeting were Dr Agni Shekhar, Kuldeep Raina, Daya Krishan (Convenor of Panun Kashmir), H N Jattu (President AIKPC) P L Budgami (President KHF), Vijay Bakaya (Ex MLC), Ashok Kangan (Head JKVM), Rakesh Koul (Head Sampuran Kashmir), M K Yogi (Head of National Conference Minority Cell), Chand Ji Bhat (Head of BJP Mandal President), P K Tikoo (PDP Migrant Cell), D N Kissu, Prof Girdhari Lal, P L Swadeshi (All from AKBUF), Sharda Nanadan (Sharda committee), T K Ganjoo (DAV Institution).
Most of them were critical and expressed their concern and were apprehensive that their fundamental rights of voting are being snatched from them.
The municipal elections were last conducted in January-February 2005 and the elected bodies had completed their five-year term in March 2010.
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