Population was necessary however not the only real standards whereas finishing up the delimitation train in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra mentioned Friday and asserted that the Union Territory needs to be seen as “one unit” the place your complete inhabitants needs to be given illustration in 90 Assembly constituencies.
Chandra, who was an ex-officio member of the delimitation panel which gave its last order on restructuring the Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this month, additionally mentioned there have been “lots of problems” with the sooner delimitation they usually have been corrected now.
Chandra mentioned there have been “lots of problems” within the earlier delimitation which have been corrected now. “There were only 12 districts when the earlier delimitation was done. Now there are 20 districts. Many constituencies were spread in more than one district. Many villages were spread into two or three constituencies. So these things will have to be rectified,” he mentioned
He was responding to questions on criticism from sure quarters that going by the inhabitants ratio, Kashmir Division received a lesser variety of seats in comparison with Jammu.
“Population is only one of the criteria of the delimitation. Besides population, there are four other criteria as per the provisions of the Delimitation Act and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act which say that consideration will also have to be given to the physical conditions and communication facilities, public conveniences and the administrative units of that area. So, these are four other criteria that have to be looked into. It (population) is one of the important criteria but not the sole criteria. That one should keep in mind,” Chandra informed PTI.
Chandra, who will demit workplace of CEC Saturday, mentioned Jammu and Kashmir must be seen as one unit. “It cannot be (seen) in different parts. It is one single Union Territory. The whole population will have to be given representation in 90 constituencies. The (Kashmir) valley has been given less or Jammu (division) has been given less — it is one whole unit comprising 20 districts and 207 tehsils. We will have to see it as one whole unit.”
The Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir, fashioned in March 2020, notified its last report on May 5 giving six extra Assembly seats to the Jammu area and one to Kashmir Valley and bringing areas of Rajouri and Poonch underneath the Anantnag parliamentary seat.
Jammu Division will now have 43 meeting seats and Kashmir 47 within the 90-member home.
The modifications will come into impact from the date to be notified by the central authorities.
Earlier, the erstwhile Assembly had 87 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh. Ladakh, within the reorganisation of the erstwhile state, was declared as a Union Territory with out an Assembly.
The inhabitants of Jammu Division is 53.72 lakh and that of the Kashmir Division is 68.83 lakh, in accordance with the 2011 Census.
Out of the 90 Assembly constituencies, 9 have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes — six in Jammu and three within the Kashmir Valley.
