Delimitation panel draft: Trigger Fresh debate In J&K

Ground Report | New Delhi: Delimitation panel draft; The Delimitation Commission has proposed to make significant changes to the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir by rescheduling several existing constituencies. The draft report has been submitted to five associate members from Jammu and Kashmir. These five members include five MPs from the Lok Sabha, three from the National Conference and two from the BJP.

But, the National Conference has rejected this draft. The party says it will send a detailed response to the commission soon.

Delimitation panel draft

In the new draft, the commission has made changes to the districts of Baramulla, Kupwara, Srinagar, Kulgam and Anantnag of the Kashmir division. At the same time, Kupwara is the only district in which the assembly constituency has been added.

Parts of Keran, Karalpora tehsil will also be included in the new Trehgam headquarters. The Kunar and Tangmarg constituencies were created by forking Gulmarg into Baramulla with five assembly constituencies and merging the Sangrama constituency.

According to the draft delimitation, the constituencies of Sangrama and Gulmarg, which went over to the PDP in the 2014 assembly elections, have ceased to exist.

JKNC summarily REJECTS draft working paper made available by Delimitation Commission to associate members on February 4th, 2022.

— JKNC (@JKNC_) February 5, 2022

Shangus tehsil in South Kashmir is divided between Anantnag East and Larnoo assembly constituencies. Kokernag, which was previously the PDP headquarters, has been divided into Doru and Larnoo. Congress has a tight grip on Dooru.

Under the draft, Kulgam will have three seats compared to the previous four and the areas of the current Home Shali Bugh constituency will be included in Devsar. There will be a separate Srinagar district assembly in the Chanpora area. Several constituencies in various districts have been rescheduled to form this constituency.

Many of the assembly seats in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state have vanished including Habba Kadal, a seat that was seen as a traditional bastion of migrant Kashmiri pandits.

Barring Khanyar, Sonwar and Hazratbal assembly seats of Srinagar district, all other seats have been redrawn and merged with new assembly seats being carved out like Channapora and Srinagar South, the officials said.

Voters from Habba Kadal will now be part of at least three assembly seats in the new proposed report, they said.

Similarly, Budgam district, which had five assembly seats, was redrawn and merged with Baramulla Parliamentary constituency besides splitting some of the areas and carving out new assembly seats like Kunzer in North Kashmir.

Seats reserved for SC-ST

The draft proposes rescheduling Anantnag's parliamentary seat to include Rajouri and Poonch from the Jammu region. Apart from this, massive changes have been made in the division of Kashmir.

In December last year, the commission made up of retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Jammu and Kashmir Election Commissioner KK Sharma had proposed seven additional seats in the assembly, six in the division Jammu and one in the Kashmir valley. For the first time, the Commission has proposed reserving nine seats for Scheduled Tribes based on population. Seven seats have been reserved for Scheduled Breeds.

Seats will increase

One each of seven additional assembly constituencies in Kathua, Samba, Rajouri, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar and Kupwara districts of the Kashmir valley in the Jammu division was proposed.

The commission has said it has proposed creating an additional constituency in some districts to balance representation from areas with inadequate communication and a lack of public facilities because they are remotely located on the international border.

The December meeting was attended by the five MPs Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi, Mohammad Akbar Lone (National Conference), Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma (BJP).

On 18 February 2021, National Conference MPs who stayed away from the commission's first meeting rejected the commission's draft resolution, saying it was "partisan" in Kashmir and therefore not acceptable. The party said that the principle of the suitability of the Constitution requires that said law not be implemented and that all members of the State and its institutions, in deference to the highest constitutional court, desist from implementing said law until its constitutionality is determined.

The National Conference also questioned the Commission's theory that seats should be expanded in the Jammu region due to difficult terrain and geographically remote areas. He highlighted that various areas in Kashmir remain isolated for months and are equally arduous when it comes to the remoteness of an area. The group highlighted several areas in Anantnag, Kupwara, Baramulla, Kulgam and Uri in the Kashmir division to compare the remoteness and difficult terrain.

The party's main objection was over the formula the Commission had adopted in throwing overboard the concept of population and said that the Kashmir division, despite having a larger number of people compared to Jammu, won only one seat.

After the completion of the delimitation exercise, the number of Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir will increase from 83 to 90. In the old Jammu and Kashmir state assembly, Kashmir had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.

You can connect with Ground Report on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Whatsapp and Subscribe to our YouTube channel. For suggestions and writeups mail us at [email protected]

ALSO READ: What is Wordle? How to play and win the internet’s latest game obsession

ALSO READ: Coke Studios Kana Yaari song with Lyrics