Panther's Party flays authorities for notices to 2 dignitaries

JAMMU: Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh has strongly criticised the issuance of notices from the state subject commission to Union Minister of State for Defence Chaman Lal Gupta and Haryana governor Babu Parmanand.
Both have been issued notices to prove that they were bona fide residents (permanent residents) of Jammu and Kashmir and that their permanent resident certificates (PRCs), called state subject certificate in common parlance here, were not fake.
This amounts to accusing the two dignitaries of fraud and heaping insult and indignity on them, Singh said.
Singh, whose party is a partner in the coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, gave an ultimatum to the state government to wind up the state subject commission within a week or face the consequences. He said he would move the Supreme Court against the commission just as he had done on the issue of the Resettlement Bill earlier.
The firebrand leader said the issuance of such notices to prominent persons of Jammu by the official machinery (insinuating that it is controlled by Kashmiris) clearly showed that the people of Jammu could not live in peace till a separate state is created for them.
The notices were against the principle of natural justice as the onus of proving their bona fides is on the respondents while as it should be on the complainant who is making the allegation of wrong-doing, Singh explained.
Towards the realisation of this end, the Panthers Party would press Mufti to hurry the process of appointment of a delimitation commission to delimit the Assembly constituencies. The regional imbalance, which is enshrined in 37 seats for Jammu and 46 seats for Kashmir, needs to be removed by reversing this ratio, Singh asserted.
Since Jammu was geographically larger and had a more difficult terrain and means of communication were less developed here, it should have a larger share in the legislative Assembly, he argued.
He also criticised the appointment of Amitabh Mattoo as vice-chancellor of Jammu University saying Mattoo was a known sympathiser of separatist Hurriyat Conference. Going a step further, he accused Mattoo of fuelling militancy through his writings in media.
"Mattoo''s appointment is the beginning of erosion of Jammu''s identity as he is implacably opposed to Jammu''s interests and wrongly promotes Kashmir-centric discourse as if Kashmir constitutes the whole of J&K," the Panthers Party chief said.