Early Times Report
Jammu, May 7: First time in the history of J&K, the political reservation has been granted to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) population of the Union Territory.
Earlier political reservation was granted to STs in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Panchayat elections. J&K is the only state in northwest India having a share of nearly 15 percent population of STs. As per the 2011 census, total population of STs in J&K counted 14.9 lakh among them 13.2 lakh are Muslim, 1 lakh are Buddhist and about 67,000 Hindu.
The Delimitation Commission was entrusted with the work of delimiting the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of 2011 census and in accordance with the provisions of Part-V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) and the provisions of Delimitation Act, 2002(33 of 2002).
Having regard to relevant provisions of the Constitution (Article 330 and Article 332) and sub-sections (6) and (7) of Section 14 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, the number of seats to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir was worked out on the basis of 2011 Census. Accordingly, the Delimitation Commission has reserved 9 assembly constituencies for STs for the first time and seven for SCs. It is worthwhile to mention that the Constitution of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State did not provide for the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly.
Assembly constituencies are reserved for STs namely Gurez, Kangan, Kokernag, Gulabarh, Rajouri, Budhal, Thanamandi, Surankote, and Mendhar. |
