| Delimitation Commission proposes six seats for Jammu province, one for Kashmir | | Kathua, Samba, Reasi, Rajouri, Kisthwar, Udhampur to get one seat each in Jammu province | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 20: The Delimitation Commission has proposed six seats for Jammu province and one seat for Kashmir Valley.
The Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge, Ranjana Prakash Desai, was constituted by the Centre on March 6, 2020, to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which bifurcated the state into union territories of J&K and Ladakh.
According to Section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, “...the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114...”. Out of these, 24 seats are in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). So effectively, the seats will go up from 83 to 90.
The elections to the Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held only after the process of delimitation is completed.
Highly placed sources said the panel has suggested one assembly seat should be increased in Kathua, Samba, Rajouri, Reasi, Udhampur, and Kishtwar districts of Jammu province.
Meanwhile, according to the official handout, today, the Delimitation Commission under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Mrs. Ranjana Prakash Desai in the august presence of the Chief Election Commissioner, State Election Commissioner, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir met all the five Associate Members namely Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Hasnain Masoodi, Jugal Kishore Sharma, and in its second meeting with Associate Members for the purposes of delimitation of assembly constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
Chairperson welcomed the Associate Members for coming forward for the meeting and hoped that this meeting would help in carrying out the work of delimitation smoothly.
Chief Election Commissioner in his remark shared the experiences of the Commission of interacting with people in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir during its visit.
He emphasized that the work of delimitation is being carried out within the overall statutory framework and keeping the interest of the common people of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
He highlighted Section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 read with Section 60(2)(b) of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which specifies that all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and regard shall be had to physical features existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication, and public conveniences.
Associate Members appreciated the fact that this Commission visited the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and met the large number of people. They assured that all necessary assistance would be extended in the work of delimitation.
Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner gave a detail presentation on the work done. He informed that in the Union Territory, since the last delimitation, number of districts has increased from 12 to 20 and number of tehsils from 52 to 207.
The population density in the districts of the Union Territory varies from 29 persons per square km in Kishtwar to 3436 persons per square km in Srinagar. In the Union
Territory, the administration has been allocating compensatory allowance to government officials working in the specific areas on grounds of remoteness of the place, its inaccessibility, severe inclement weather conditions, its
remaining cut off from the rest of the State (now Union Territory) for a period of time, lack and gross inadequacy of medical, educational, residential and other basic amenities of life, its health hazards and similar other rigorousconditions of living. The Union Territory shares international boundary and
in those locations, the inhabitants are forced to take shelter, intermittently, bunkers due to continued inhospitable and uncertain living conditions.
Thereafter, the Commission explained that taking all these into account, the Delimitation Commission has categorized all 20 districts in three broad categories A, B and C giving margin of +/- 10% of average population per Assembly Constituency (AC), while proposing allocation of the constituencies to the districts.
The Commission has also, for some districts, proposed carving out of an additional Constituency to balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to the irinhospitable conditions on the international border. For the first time, in Jammu and Kashmir, 9 (Nine) seats are proposed to be allocated for Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population.
Seven seats are proposed for Scheduled Castes. excessive remoteness or The Commission shared Paper - I describing the proposed seat allocation at the level of districts with all the Members with the request to furnish their views, comments and suggestions by 31.12.2021. |
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