Faizan Wani
Srinagar, Jun 30: The delimitation commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice (retd.) Ranjana Desai will undertake a four-day visit of Jammu & Kashmir from July 6 to hold consultations with different stakeholders including political parties to gather first-hand information and inputs concerning the ongoing exercise of delimitation of Assembly segments in J&K Union Territory.
The commission will visit J&K from July 6 to 9 to interact with political parties, public representatives and Union Territory administration officials including all 20 deputy commissioners to gather first-hand information and input concerning the on-going process of delimitation as mandated under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.
“They will arrive in Kashmir on July 6 and hold consultations with political parties and deputy commissioners before flying to Jammu where they will interact with different stakeholders on July 8 and 9,” sources said.
The delimitation panel decided to visit J&K days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired an all-party meeting on Kashmir in New Delhi.
In the meeting, the PM said that “delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected Government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory”.
The APM on June 24 was attended by leaders of National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Bharatiya Janta Party, Congress, Peoples Conference and other smaller parties.
This will be the first visit of a three-member panel comprising Justice(retd.) Ranjana Desai, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner Kewal Kumar Sharma to J&K. The panel was constituted on March 6, 2020 to fix boundaries for 90 Assembly segments of Jammu and Kashmir and reserve seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the House.
In an official handout, the panel said it has decided to visit the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir from July 6 to July 9 .
“The Commission expects that all stakeholders will cooperate in this endeavour and will provide valuable suggestions so that the task of delimitation is completed timely,” the handout states.
The panel also said it has already held a series of meetings related to data/map of the districts/ constituencies related to census 2011.
“A number of representations has also been received on various aspects concerning delimitation from civil societies and members of the public from the Union Territory. The Commission has already taken note of all such suggestions and directed that these may be deliberated further in the context of ground realities concerning delimitation,” the panel said.
Five MPs from Jammu and Kashmir are associate members of the panel. Of which three are from National Conference and two are from BJP.
National Conference has decided to stay away from proceedings of the commission, citing that the law under which the panel has been set-up has been challenged by the Party in the Supreme Court.
