Scores of public representatives from 10 districts in Kashmir on Tuesday asked the J&K Delimitation Commission to address “brazen discrepancies” in the proposed draft, as the panel concluded its two-day tour of the Union Territory (UT) which is likely to pave way for the first ever Assembly elections since J&K’s special constitutional status was ended in 2019.
No major political figure from the regional parties met the panel during its stay in Srinagar, unlike Jammu where top BJP leaders, including party president Ravinder Raina met the members of the Commission. In Srinagar, mostly village heads and civil society representatives apprised the panel about discrepancies in the draft made public in March.
Areas cut off
“We sought amendments in the draft. It has proposed to keep Shopian with the Srinagar parliamentary constituency and merge Poonch with the Anantnag parliament constituency. These places are far off from each other. The panel has realised the mistakes and decided to meet those who had raised these objections,” Janata Dal (United) secretary general Mirza Sajad Hussain Baigh said.
Several villagers from Devsar in south Kashmir sought the panel’s attention to the decision to merge Devsar with Damhal Hanji Pora. “We demanded that Devsar should be part of Kulgam Assembly segment and not Damhal Hanji Pora, which are cut off from each other,” the villagers, who met the panel, said.
Apni Party leaders from Budgam and Srinagar, Muntazir Mohi-ud-din and Noor Mohammad Sheikh, said they apprised the panel about the “callous turnup of the report”.
“The report was based on zero ground exercise without consulting the people and their representatives from different constituencies. We proposed a draft which would allocate the seats as per the population census 2011 and would be a balanced and fair decision. We demanded the current arrangement of the Parliamentary constituencies should be kept intact,” they said.
Met 400 delegations
According to an official spokesman, the Commission approximately met 400 delegations during their two-day stay in J&K. The panel has received 400 suggestions from 4,000 signatories till March 21 in response to its proposed draft.
The spokesman said the Commission assured the delegations, who called on the members in Jammu as well as Srinagar, that it would consider their genuine suggestions or grievances sympathetically in accordance with the Delimitation Act.
The Commission, headed by Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai, 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, the spokesman said.
During the public sessions, the main points of all the representations were read out and the concerned delegations were given an opportunity to highlight any additional points for the consideration of the Commission, the spokesman added.
The panel, constituted under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019, has increased the Assembly constituencies from existing 83 to 90, with six additional seats for the Jammu division and one for the Kashmir division. The Commission, for the first time, proposed to reserve nine seats for the Scheduled Tribes and seven seats for Scheduled Castes.
The panel’s final draft to be submitted by May 6 is likely to pave the way for first ever Assembly elections in J&K, which remained under the Centre’s rule since 2018.
