Srinagar: The Delimitation Commission on Thursday signed the final order for the delimitation of the union territory and laid down fresh provisions for Jammu and Kashmir.
The commission was working on redrawing the boundaries for the assembly and parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir. The commission was formed in March 2020.
The Commission is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai, and comprises chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and deputy election commissioner Chander Bhushan Kumar, state election commissioner (SEC) KK Sharma, and chief electoral officer Hridesh Kumar as its ex-officio members.
The provisions laid down by the commission are as follows:
- Out of the 90 Assembly Constituencies in the region, 43 will be part of the Jammu region and 47 of the Kashmir region.
- Out of 90 seats, seven constituency seats are reserved for the scheduled castes and nine for the scheduled tribes.
- There are five Parliamentary Constituencies in the region. The Delimitation Commission has seen the Jammu & Kashmir region as one single Union Territory. Therefore, one of the parliamentary constituencies has been carved out combining the Anantnag region in the Valley and the Rajouri & Poonch of the Jammu region. By this reorganization, each Parliamentary Constituency will have an equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each.
- Keeping in mind the local sentiments, the commission has agreed to change the names of certain assembly constituencies like Tangmarg is renamed Gulmarg, Zoonimar as Zaidibal, Sonwar as Lal Chowk, and so on.
- The Commission also interacted with the delegation of the Kashmiri migrants that were persecuted and forced to live in exile as a refugee in their own country. The commission further recommended Central government to carry a provision of at least two members (one of them must be a female) from the community of Kashmiri Migrants in the Legislative Assembly and such members may be given power at par with the power of nominated members, of the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Puducherry.
- The delimitation commission also recommended that the Central Government may consider giving the Displaced Persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir some representation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, by way of the nomination of representatives of the Displaced Persons from Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier on the occasion of Independence Day in 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said elections would be held in Jammu and Kashmir after the delimitation process in the Union Territory was over.