Team News Riveting
Srinagar, December 20
The Delimitation Commission Jammu & Kashmir on Monday met with its five associate members and made a proposal on the allocation of assembly seats in Kashmir and Jammu regions besides for Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
According to sources, the delimitation panel proposed six additional seats for the Jammu region and one for the Kashmir Valley. It would take the total number of seats in the Jammu region to 43 and in the Kashmir region 47.
Twenty-four seats will remain vacant for the POK, they added.
Sources added that the panel had proposed to reserve nine seats for Scheduled Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes. Sources said the associate members had been requested to share their suggestions on these by December 31.
Union minister Jitendra Singh and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah were among those who attended the meeting.
The Delimitation Commission is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is an ex-officio member of the panel.
Meanwhile, the political parties in J&K on Monday rejected the draft recommendations of the J&K Delimitation Commission proposing six new seats to Jammu region and only one in Kashmir valley.
“The recommendations of the delimitation commission are totally unacceptable. They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy,” People’s Conference President, Sajad Gani Lone wrote on Twitter shortly after the commission’s recommendations became public.
“It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been it’s only consideration. Contrary to the promised “scientific approach” it’s a political approach,” Omar wrote in a tweet.
