Delimitation Commission concludes two-day visit to J&K

Srinagar, April 5 (IANS) The Delimitation Commission on Tuesday concluded its 2-day visit to J&K, in which it met 400 delegations, an official statement said.

"The Delimitation Commission of Jammu and Kashmir met with approximately 400 delegations from different parts of UT of J&K during its two day public sittings at Convention Centre, Jammu and SKICC, Srinagar," it said.

According to the statement, in response to the draft delimitation proposal published in Gazette of India (extraordinary) and in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Gazette on March 14, around 400 suggestions/representations with 4,000 signatories were received by the commission till March 21.

"The Commission decided to provide personal hearing to all these delegations, 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.

"During the public sittings, the main points of all the representations were read out and the concerned delegations were given opportunity to highlight any additional points for the consideration of the Commission," it said, adding that 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.

"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 further noted that the entire exercise has been carried out as per the provisions of the Delimitation Act 2002 and the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, keeping in view population, public conveniences, communication facilities, geographical compactness of the areas as well as the existing administrative boundaries while delimiting the constituencies."

The statement said that it was also mentioned that the Commission is mandated under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 to increase the Assembly constituencies from existing 83 to 90.

It, for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, has proposed to reserve nine seats for the Scheduled Tribes and in addition to it, seven seats have been proposed to be reserved for Scheduled Castes.

"The members of the public largely appreciated the efforts of Delimitation Commission and expressed their satisfaction on the entire exercise and termed it fully democratic and transparent process which will benefit the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Delimitation Commission assured the delegations who called on the Commission in Jammu as well as Srinagar that the commission shall consider their genuine suggestions/grievances sympathetically in accordance with the Delimitation Act."

The Commission is headed by Chairperson, Justice (Retd.), Ranjana Prakash Desai with Chief Election Commissioner, Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner, K.K Sharma as its members.

The five members of Lok Sabha from J&K are its associate members.