Delimitation panel releases draft proposal for public remarks
The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission on Monday released its draft report for public remarks and sought objections and suggestions from residents of the union territory before March 21, which will be considered by the panel in its public sitting on March 28 and 29.
There isn’t much difference between the first and second draft proposals that were given to associate members of the commission, but in the new report, names of some assembly constituencies have been kept the same as they were in the erstwhile state. For example, the Habba Kadal constituency’s name was changed in the second draft proposal but has been kept the same in the new report.
In the first draft proposal, the commission had proposed six seats for the Jammu division and one for Kashmir, and it has been not changed in the fresh draft proposal published in gazettes. Likewise, in the second draft, some parts of the Rajouri and Poonch districts that are part of the Jammu division had been included in the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat and that too has been left without any change, despite strong objections from three National Conference MPs.
As per the draft released for the public, the number of Lok Sabha seats have been kept five and no seat has been reserved for SCs/STs The number of legislative seats, however, has been increased to 90 from 83 in the erstwhile state assembly (47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu). Earlier, it was 37 in Jammu and 46 in Kashmir. In the draft report, seven seats have been reserved for SCs and nine for STs.
As per the draft proposal, 24 seats will continue to remain vacant as they fall under Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK).
Nine seats reserved for STs include Rajouri, Darhal and Thanna Mandii ( Rajouri), Surankote and Mendhar in Poonch) and Mahore in Reasi in Jammu division; and Gurez in Bandipora, Kangan in Ganderbal, and Kokernag in Anantnag in Kashmir division.
All seven seats reserved for SCs fall in Jammu-Ramnagar in Udhampur, Kathua South in Kathua, Ramgarh in Samba; Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Marh and Akhnoor
In the draft report, names of all new assembly seats carved out in J&K have been published district-wise along with older assembly segments.
The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has already termed the ongoing delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir “unconstitutional” and said the exercise was being carried out under the J&K Reorganisation Act, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The alliance, however, said they were not against the delimitation process.
The delimitation commission was constituted in March 2020 and last month, it was given two months of extension till May 6 to complete the exercise of redrawing assembly constituencies in J&K. The panel was given a one-year extension last year. Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, it has chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and the state election commissioner of J&K, KK Sharma, as its ex-officio members.
In its first draft, the panel proposed adding six assembly seats in the Jammu region and one in Kashmir. In the second one, while fresh seats were carved out in the UT, many old assembly seats were omitted and some were renamed.
The two proposals, however, evoked strong resentment from political leaders, with the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) describing them as “anti-people”.
Last month, the National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi, and Akbar Lone. who are associate members of the commission, had submitted an objection report with the commission in New Delhi, rejecting the second draft proposal. The MPs alleged that the plan was against the mandate of the commission as it had ignored historical aspects, population ratio of assembly segments, and geography of the region. After the public response, the draft will be finalised and submitted to the Union government.
J&K Congress opposes draft
The J&K Congress has strongly objected to the final draft of delimitation, stating that “it is dissection, not delimitation, totally ignoring ground realities”. J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said, “The commission was expected to revisit and review its draft before putting it in the public domain, but it has not heard the voices of people from different areas of the public domain”.
The panel hasn’t bothered about aspirations, public convenience, and ground realities of connectivity and communications while dissecting the several assembly constituencies, besides creating Anantnag -Rajouri- Poonch constituency, against the topographical geographical and ground situations, he added. “The party shall submit its detailed objections after getting feedback from the ground leaders and general public from each assembly constituency,” said Sharma.
