Srinagar, Dec 07: Aimed to redraw the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the J&K, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Tuesday stated that the Delimitation Commission endeavours to complete the exercise as early as possible.

Notably, the Commission was constituted in March 2020 to redraw the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of J&K, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland, is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.

Responding to the queries raised in the ongoing winter season of parliament, the Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that the commission was trying to complete the exercise early in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a written reply to the house the Union Minister  said that the Government has constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“The Delimitation Commission has held extensive consultations with various stakeholders like State Election Commissioner of UT of J&K, Chief Secretary, Govt. of J&K, Registrar General of lndia, Surveyor General of lndia, District Election Officers of all 20 districts of J&K”, the reply reads. “The Delimitation Commission visited various places in Jammu & Kashmir from 6th July to 9th July, 2021 to receive inputs from the stakeholders”.

“The endeavour of Commission is to complete the said exercise as early as possible”, the union minister said in the reply.

Pertinently, Home Minister Amit Shah on his maiden visit to J&K during his address to youth club members in Srinagar in October this year stated that the elections will be held only after the delimitation in t J&K while the statehood will be granted after the polls.

He had stated that August 05, 2019, will be written with the golden words in the history of Jammu and Kashmir which has given a new beginning to the region including an afresh dawn of development and prosperity.

It may be recalled that the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganized into two separate Union Territories including Ladakh and J&K on 31, October 2019. kno

This post was published on December 7, 2021