he Delimitation Commission tasked with redrawing the assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday met to finalise the delimitation order for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Nine seats have been reserved for STs for the first time and all five Parliamentary constituencies will have an equal number of Assembly constituencies, the commission decided.
The gazette notification for the same was also published on Thursday. As per the final Delimitation Order, out of the 90 Assembly constituencies in the region, 43 will be a part of Jammu region and 47 of the Kashmir region keeping in view the provisions of Section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 60(2)(b) of the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.
After consultation with associate members, representatives of political parties, citizens and civil society groups, nine ACs have been reserved for STs, out of which, 6 are in Jammu region and 3 ACs in the Valley.
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 Anantnag region in the Valley and Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu region. By this reorganisation, each Parliamentary constituency will have an equal number of 18 Assembly constituencies.
Names of some of the Assembly constituencies have also been changed keeping in view the demand of local representatives.
“It may be recalled that the Delimitation Commission was constituted by the Govt. of India, in exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2002), for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The Commission associated in its work, 5 members of Lok Sabha elected from the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. These Associate Members were nominated by the Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha,” the Election Commission said.
“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 ACs for STs for the first time and 07 for SCs. It is worthwhile to mention that the Constitution of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State did not provide for reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly,” it added.
Although the Commission was tasked to finish the delimitation process in a year, on March 4 this year, it was granted a year’s extension. This was done on the request of the panel members since it couldn’t make much progress due to the Covid-19-induced shutdown across the country.
Apart from Desai, Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and J&K State Election Commissioner K K Sharma are the ex-officio members of the delimitation panel. That apart, the panel has five associate members — National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Jitendra Singh, and Jugal Kishore Sharma of the BJP.
“The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act, 2002 laid down the broad parameters within which the delimitation exercise was to be carried out. However, the Commission formulated Guidelines and Methodology for delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, for smooth functioning and effective results, and the same were followed during the delimitation process,” said a statement of the poll panel.
It added that the Commission had decided that the constituencies shall be delimited with regard to the administrative units i.e. districts, tehsils, patwar circles, etc, “as in existence on 15-06-2020” and the Commission had communicated to the UT administration not to disturb the administrative units “as existing as on 15-06-2020” till the completion of the delimitation exercise in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
“It was ensured by the Commission that every Assembly Constituency shall be contained entirely in one district and the lowest administrative units i.e. Patwar Circles (and Wards in Jammu Municipal Corporation) were not broken and were kept in single Assembly Constituency.The Commission took extreme care in identifying the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly and to locate seats to be reserved for these communities, as far as practicable, in areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest, by working out the percentage of Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes population in each Assembly Constituency and identifying the requisite number of reserved constituencies by arranging them in descending order,” the statement added.