After meeting scores of delegations in Srinagar on Tuesday, the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir said it will accommodate the genuine suggestions brought to its notice by political parties, which fall in the purview of the Delimitation Act.
The Commission is headed by Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai with Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner K.K. Sharma as its members. Five Lok Sabha MPs from J&K are its associate members.
The Commission met more than 300 delegations of civil society groups at SKICC and listened to their objections and suggestions.
Before coming to Srinagar, the Commission had met more than 100 delegations and groups in Jammu on Monday. The National Conference gave the meeting a skip.
In an official statement released to the press, the Commission said that main points of all the representations were read out and the delegations concerned were given opportunity to highlight any additional points for the consideration of the Commission.
“The general public, public representatives, social workers and members of political parties utilised this opportunity and highlighted their demands/suggestions/grievances before the Commission which were duly noted by the Commission,” the statement said.
“The Commission informed the participants that the Delimitation exercise of Jammu and Kashmir has been carried out by the Commission in a record time of two-years despite the prevalence of Covid-19 pandemic in the country,” it said.
The Commission was set up by the Centre under J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, after the removal of Article 370.
For the first time in the history of J&K, nine seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and seven seats for the Scheduled Castes (SC). The Commission has increased the Assembly seats in J&K by seven seats—six for Jammu region and one for Kashmir—taking the total number of seats to 90. Earlier, the J&K Assembly had 87 seats, 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and four in Ladakh which was separated from J&K and declared a Union Territory.
