J&K Delimitation Panel Reserves 43 Seats For Jammu, 47 For Kashmir; Recommends Additional Seats For Kashmiri Migrants, Displaced Persons From PoJK

The Jammu and Kashmir delimitation commission on Thursday signed the final order for the delimitation of the union territory.

The panel headed by former Supreme Court justice Ranjana Desai met on Thursday to finalise the delimitation order for the UT. The Gazette notification for the same has also been published today.

The Gazette notification for the same has also been published, the Election Commission said in a release.

According to the delimitation order, out of the 90 Assembly constituencies in J&K, 43 will be part of Jammu region and 47 for Kashmir region.

Previously, the Kashmir division had 46 assembly constituencies and Jammu division had 37 seats.

Further, nine assembly constituencies have been reserved for scheduled tribes (STs), out of which six are in Jammu and the remaining three in the valley.

Acocording to the EC, there are five parliamentary constituencies in the region.

"The Delimitation Commission has seen the Jammu & Kashmir region as one single Union Territory. Therefore, one of the Parliamentary Constituency has been carved out combining Anantnag region in the Valley and Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu region. By this reorganisation each Parliamentary Constituency will have equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each," the EC said.

Further, the names of some of the assembly constituencies have also been changed keeping in view the demand of local representatives.

The Delimitation Commission has reserved nine ACs for STs for the first time and seven for SCs.

It should be noted that the Constitution of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state did not provide for reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly.

According to the EC, the Commission took extreme care in identifying the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly and to locate seats to be reserved for these communities, as far as practicable, in areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest, by working out the percentage of Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes population in each Assembly Constituency and identifying the requisite number of reserved constituencies by arranging them in descending order.

Further, after receiving number of representations from Kashmiri migrants, who left valley owing to persecution and are living as refugees in their own country, and the displaced persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the panel has also made following recommendations to the Central government:

1. Provision of at least two members (one of them must be a female) from the community of Kashmiri Migrants in the Legislative Assembly and such members may be given power at par with the power of nominated members, of the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Puducherry.

2. The Central Government may consider giving the Displaced Persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir some representation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, by way of nomination of representatives of the Displaced Persons from Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.