After concluding a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the Delimitation Commission is likely to submit its report by the end of this month. A decision on assembly elections in the Union Territory will be taken only after the submission of the report by the panel.
On April 5, the Delimitation Commission concluded its two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir after meeting nearly 400 delegations at Jammu and Srinagar.
After putting its report in the public domain the Delimitation Commission had decided to hold direct interaction with the people at Jammu and Srinagar respectively.
The Commission had decided to provide a personal hearing to people- both in Jammu as well as Srinagar so that the public can directly interact with the members of the Commission and present their suggestions before them.
Final report to be submitted to Law Ministry
Quoting a senior officer a news agency reported that the Commission will submit its final report to the Ministry of Law and Justice as they had notified the Commission. After submission of the report, a summary revision of the electoral rolls will be taken up by the Election Commission.
In the next three-four months, draft rolls will be published and verification is done door to door. After all this process, it seems the government might call an all-party meeting and take their opinion. The Commission was given two months extension on March 6 and had to submit a report before May 6.
Panel constituted in March 2020
Headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir was constituted by the Centre on March 6, 2020, to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory.
The panel was constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The Commission has Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the state election commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir as its ex-officio members.
The elections to the Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held only after the process of delimitation is completed.
The report was put in the public domain on March 14
After getting suggestions from the associate members, the Delimitation Commission put its report in the public domain on March 14 and invited objections and suggestions from people.
The Delimitation Commission has published its report in the gazettes of India as well as Jammu and Kashmir regarding the proposals.
According to the draft proposal which was put in the public domain, there has been no increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats in J&K.
Similarly, there is no reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the parliamentary seats of the union territory.
The report said the total number of seats in the assembly has been increased to 90 with a reservation of seven seats for SCs and nine for STs. The Jammu division will have Jammu-Reasi and Udhampur-Doda constituencies while the Kashmir division will have Srinagar-Budgam and Baramulla-Kupwara. The Anantnag-Poonch seat will be part of both divisions.
