The Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday decided to accept some of the suggestions by its associate members — the five J&K MPs — on the boundaries of the Assembly constituencies, according to sources.
The Commission, set up in March 2020, received a two-month extension this week as its tenure was set to end on March 6.
At a meeting on Thursday, the three-member Commission, headed by retired Justice Ranjana Desai, and with Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as member, discussed the suggestions of Union Minister and Udhampur MP Jitendra Singh, Jammu MP Jugal Kishore and the joint submission by three National Conference MPs from Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone, an official said.
The associate members had been given the draft proposal regarding boundaries and reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribes for comments till February 14.
The Commission has decided to accept suggestions to make the boundaries contiguous as far as possible, the official said, adding that the same would be communicated to the members this week.
The MPs would be given the revised draft and asked for their comments again, before the final draft was published for comments from the public within a month, the official said.
The Commission had proposed adding six seats in Jammu and one in Kashmir. The National Conference MPs had objected to the six–one ratio and the difference in population per constituency in Jammu and in Kashmir.
They had pointed out that some of the redrawn constituencies had not followed the principles of geographical compactness, communication facilities and convenience to public as mentioned in the Delimitation Act, 2002.
