Delimitation Commission proposes 6 seats for Jmu, 1 for Kmr
New Delhi: The Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir has proposed six additional assembly seats for Jammu region and one for Kashmir while reserving 16 constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Kashmir division currently has 46 seats and Jammu 37 seats.
The commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai held its second meeting here on Monday. It has five Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir as associate members and Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as ex-officio member.
Three Lok Sabha members of the NC, including party president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, attended the commission meeting for the first time. Two BJP MPs, including Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, were also present.
Sources said that the parties have been asked to submit their views on the proposed increase of seats by December 31.
Abdullah, who is also the chairman of the five-party People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), said after the meeting that he would brief the grouping as well as his party colleagues of the deliberations of the commission.
“We attended the meeting for the first time because we wanted the voice of people of Jammu and Kashmir to be heard. The meeting took place in cordial manner and we all were explained the method adopted for coming to the conclusion,” Abdullah said.
“I will discuss with my senior party leaders before sending our views to the commission. We have also not been told about the seats that they are reserving for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes,” he said.
The commission has proposed nine seats for STs and seven for SCs in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.
The Delimitation Commission was set up in February 2020 after the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill in Parliament in August 2019.
Initially, it was asked to complete its work within a year but had to be given an extension of one year in March this year as the work could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The commission is tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the union territory.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a meeting with Jammu and Kashmir leaders on June 24, had said the ongoing delimitation exercise has to happen quickly so that polls can be held to install an elected government that gives strength to its development trajectory.
In a series of tweets after a three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with 14 political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said, “Our priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy in JK. Delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and JK gets an elected Government that gives strength to JK’s development trajectory.”
On June 23 this year, the commission had held a meeting that was attended by all the 20 deputy commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir where inputs were gathered on how to make the assembly seats more geographically compact.
Twenty-four seats of the assembly continue to remain vacant as they fall under Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK).
Meanwhile, major political parties from Kashmir have rejected the commission’s recommendations alleging that all their suggestions over the delimitation of seats have been ignored.
