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| Sets the ball rolling for setting up of Delimitation Commission | | Government of India listens to pleas of Jammu residents | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, F eb 18: With the name of Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra being proposed as one of the members of the Delimitation Commission in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir Government of India has set the ball rolling for increasing the number of seats of the assembly.
Ever since Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution of India were abrogated from the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir speculations were doing rounds that the exercise of delimitation may begin sooner than later. With Chandra’s nomination the exercise has been started in the union territory, even though little late.
Sources told Early Times that the central leadership of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had decided long time back that delimitation would be taken up in Jammu & Kashmir and only then the assembly elections would be held. It was in this regard only that the important leaders of BJP at the central level made statements from time to time regarding delimitation.
“The people of Jammu region have been crying that number of seats need to be increased in the Jammu division so that deprivation among masses is put to rest. The setting up of Delimitation Commission would settle the nerves of the people living in Jammu division to some extent and they can hope for the things to be better in the near future,” said sources.
It would be in place to mention here that the strength of the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly was 87. This includes four members of the house from the Ladakh division of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. Since Ladakh is a separate union territory now the effective strength of Jammu & Kashmir assembly is 83.
Since 24 seats have been reserved for the residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) the total strength of the Jammu & Kashmir assembly including (PoK) is 107. During the process of delimitation it is expected that seven more seats would be added to Jammu & Kashmir assembly and as such the strength would be 114.
“In the present day context while 46 members are elected to the Jammu & Kashmir assembly from Kashmir division the remaining 37 members are elected from the Jammu division. There are chances that seven seats would be added to the number of seats from Jammu and the number may reach to 44,” said sources.
Sources said that there are many seats in the Jammu division where the number of electors is high and as such seats need to be divided into two so that there is no more discrimination in the allocation of seats furthermore. They said the people of Jammu have been yearning for the setting up of Delimitation Commission so that there is no more regional imbalance.
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