Here is an update, based on following article:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2046206/how-to-prevent-specified-properties-being-generated-in-wcf-clients[
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When I add following attribute instead of just [DataMember], I was able to see the value in my service operation - Add(objRegion) and data is being added into the database.
[DataMember(IsRequired=true)]
Still on research why we need IsRequired on all the fields of Data Contract to true, but if we don't add or set IsRequired to false, then you have Specified properties generated for all fields of Data Contract except string fields and the value shows up as zero in service method if you do not set Spefified properties to be true for those fields.