Need for Paddar Assembly Constituency? An Open Letter

We the poorest, backward, snowbound, neglected, discriminated, biased, mountainous, inaccessible and around 90% living below poverty line people of Sub-Division Paddar and Tehsil Nagseni of District Kishtwar, J&K, take the opportunity to approach your kind and benevolent self with the demand to carve out a unique backward Assembly Constituency for J&K Assembly on the grounds and merits, briefly enumerated hereunder:

Separate Paddar Assembly Constituency

The entire area of Sub-Division of Paddar is the most extreme and backward area of Jammu Province whose boundary touches with Padum Zanskar of Ladakh area in the North and Pangi area of Himachal Pradesh in the east.

Both of these areas, up to the 1960s used to be dependent on Paddar in respect of relations of essential commodities. We still have the relations of Roti and Beti with the neighboring Pangi and Zanskar. The lives of these people were revolutionized and galvanized as the Pangi area was declared as “Scheduled Tribe” and Zanskar area as Hill Development Council by the Government.

As a result both these areas developed by leaps and bounds and they finally ended the relations of Beti with our people thinking of us as most backward and downtrodden.

Merits

1. Paddar Comprises of Two Tehsils i.e Machail and Atholi and both Tehsils form a Sub-Division.
2. Paddar is rich in natural resources like the world-famous Sapphire Mine of Paddar, green gold forests, medicinal herbs etc. and has a huge potential of tourism besides the hydro-electric potential over mighty river Chenab besides mini/micro-hydroelectric potential over numerous water streams and waterfalls.
3. Paddar has 32 revenue villages. All of these villages have over 90% of BPL families which is the main parameter of poverty.
4. There is a famous Tourism pilgrimage in Paddar Machail village by the name of Machail Mata where devotees from all parts of the country pay obeisance annually.
5. The total population of Sub-Division Paddar is 21,548 CD Block No. 0119 as per the 2011 Census.

Also Read – Machail Yatra History in Hindi by D R Parihar

Tehsil Nagseni with Paddar

Again, the entire area of Tehsil Nagseni is hilly, backward with a huge Schedule Tribe and Schedule Caste population, discriminated against, and biased due to inaccessibility, underdeveloped, snowbound, and neglected.

The poor population depends on agriculture without any means of irrigation and is around 30 km away from District Headquarter Kishtwar on the way to Paddar. The people of Tehsil Nagseni alongside Tehsil Atholi and Machail Paddar be declared and granted a separate Assembly segment on the merits and grounds mentioned below:

Merits

1. The people of Nagseni have the relation of Roti and Beti with people of Sub-Division Paddar.
2. That geographical, climatic, social, customs, rituals, living conditions, and others are the same in both regions.
3. That Sub-Divisional Headquarter Paddar is hardly 30 km from Nagseni and is linked by road.
4. That about 80% population of Nagseni is Below Poverty Line or Scheduled Tribe as both Block Development Council and District Development Council member belong to Scheduled Tribe.
5. That whole area is un-represented and un-heard of, as the literacy rate is very small and unreckonable.
6. That the population of Tehsil Nagseni is 19,189 as per the census of 2011. CD Block Nagseni No. 0115.

Therefore, given the above facts and without any consideration of vote politics, caste, creed, or color and in the larger interest of future generations of poor public, the people demand the creation of a new mountainous and backward Assembly constituency comprising of Tehsil Machail, Atholi and Nagseni on the following additional grounds:

The above population is much higher than the following Assembly segments carved during the previous delimitation commission tabulated below:

The overall population of Sub-Division Paddar and Tehsil Nagseni has surely increased during the past decade and is just equal to

Conclusion

In view of the above, kind and judicious as you have always been, it is hoped that the Delimitation Commission will kindly look into the matter deeply and compassionately and recommend the creation of a new Assembly Constituency of the name and style of Paddar-Nagseni so that the poor public get rid of age-old subjugation, deprivation and sense of humiliation and humbling.

We are the public of Paddar and Nagseni.

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