Srinagar, July 6: Delimitation Commission for the Jammu and Kashmir comprising Chairperson Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai and Chief Election Commissioner Shri Sushil Chandra reached Srinagar on 4 days consultative tour of the J&K on Tuesday.
On the first day, the Commission interacted with various political parties including BSP, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), INC, J&K NC, J&K National Panthers Party, JK People’s Conference, JK Apni Party, and 17 district units of various political parties.
“Tomorrow Commission will be visiting Anantnag district and will interact with the political parties and members of public of 4 districts viz. Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian, Pulwama.”
On 8th and 9th July, the Commission will visit Kishtwar and Jammu and interact with the political parties, civil societies and the DCs.
The Delimitation Commission was constituted in March 2020 and its term was extended by another year in March 2021 in view of the ongoing pandemic. Third Member of the Commission is the State Election Commissioner of Jammu & Kashmir. The Commission also has five Associate Members nominated by the Speaker, Lok Sabha.
The Commission already had series of meetings related to data and map of the Districts and Constituencies related to census 2011.
However, the Commission’s meeting in February was attended by just two members — Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma of the BJP. National Conference MPs—Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi had refused to participate, stating that the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 was “palpably unconstitutional” and no decisions should be taken until the Supreme Court decides on its constitutional validity.
“A number of representations have also been received on various aspects concerning delimitation from civil societies and members of public from the Union Territory,” the Commission had said in a statement while announcing the decision to visit J&K last week.
During the all-party meeting on June 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought the participation of leaders from J&K in the delimitation exercise. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who along with NSA Ajit Doval was present in the meeting, later made delimitation and elections as “important milestones” for the restoration of the statehood to J&K.
