Parties oppose order to issue certificate of residence to non-locals in Jammu

The National Conference, which had earlier called the BJP “insecure” for extending voting rights to non-locals, said on Wednesday that the government is “going ahead with its plan to add 25-lakh non-local voters in J&K and we continue to oppose this move. The BJP is scared of the elections & knows it will lose badly. People of J&K must defeat these conspiracies at the ballot box”.

The order lists documents such as water and electricity or gas connection for at least one year; Aadhaar card; current passbook of any nationalised /scheduled bank or post office; Indian passport; Revenue Department’s land-owning records, among others, required for the certificate.

“We have been repeatedly emphasising the BJP’s ill-intentions behind removing Article 370 and to change the demography in J&K. This order in Jammu will include a deluge of people which will harm not just the Dogra culture but also the business, jobs and resources in the region,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said on Wednesday.

She added that the BJP is attempting to divide people on regional and communal lines. “The people of both Kashmir and Jammu should understand that our destiny is the same and we must stand together to defeat the agenda of the BJP,” she said.

Through delimitation, the constituencies have been re-carved in a manner so as to benefit the BJP, she said, adding, “now that they realise that the people of Jammu have understood that they are being used in elections, that’s why they are bringing these changes”.

The Sajjad Lone-led People’s Conference said the order is “highly suspicious”. “The directive issued by Jammu DC, authorising revenue officials to issue certificates of residence to outsiders residing for more than a year reinforces the apprehensions in the minds of locals that outsiders are being enabled to register as voters in order to change the demographic profile of J&K,” he said.

Terming the order a “blatant violation” of the SC judgment in ECI vs Dr Manmohan Singh case, where the court held that the ordinary resident in a constituency as mentioned in the Representation of the People Act-1950 shall mean a “habitual resident of that place or a resident as a matter of fact in regular, normal or usual course and that the residence must be permanent in character and for a considerable time with intention to dwell permanently”, PC spokesperson Adnan Ashraf said the apprehensions of demographic intervention in J&K are actually fuelled by unwarranted actions, gestures and statements of certain officers of the election authority.

“First, the press conference of the CEO claiming registration of 25-lakh outside voters created doubts about demographic intervention and then the state administration had to retract from this statement by issuing a clarification. Now, the Jammu DC has provided fodder to such apprehensions by her latest directive forcing the people of J&K to believe that such demographic intervention is actually taking shape,” he said.

CPIM leader M Y Tarigami also condemned the move, stating, “This latest order is the beginning of a wider plan to give voting rights to non-locals to reduce the weightage of locals & change electoral demographics. All parties and civil society groups must reject this arbitrary inclusion of non-locals. BJP’s designs must be defeated.”