Jammu: Delimitation Commission is likely to put its draft proposals, recommending massive reconfiguration of J&K assembly and parliamentary constituencies, in public domain tomorrow to elicit people’s response or opinion.
Though officially the Commission has not come out with any statement on this account yet the sources have maintained that the people may be given a week’s time to file their objections.
“The 3-member Commission is almost all set to make its draft public on March 14. The people will be given seven days’ time to submit their suggestions or objections till March 21,” sources add though with a word of caution vis-a-vis last minute change in the schedule.
“Draft proposals to be put in public domain will have complete data about the composition of Patwar and Tehsil halqas which, following redrawing of the boundaries, will be part of the proposed 90 seats of J&K Assembly. Besides the draft, the suggestions and dissent reports submitted by its Associate members from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National Conference (NC) respectively will also be made public,” sources maintain.
They state that the Commission after the completion of this exercise may visit J&K by the end of this month and meet the representatives of political parties and the public delegations separately in Jammu and Srinagar to deliberate on its recommendations.
This entire process may take 40-45 days to complete. Following it, the Commission will prepare its final report which is to be submitted by May 6, 2022, its revised deadline (after its term has been extended by two months).
Delimitation Commission comprised Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai as chairperson, the Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner (SEC) K K Sharma as its members.
On July 9, 2021, while winding up the Delimitation Commission’s four-day maiden visit to J&K, the Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra had stated that after taking the views of the Associate members, the draft recommendations would be put in public domain for comments.
“After taking into account all those comments, concerns, a final draft will be prepared. So the opportunity will be given to the public at large to lodge their objections again vis-a-vis the draft. So the purpose of the Commission is to take view of all stakeholders in this particular exercise,” the CEC had maintained.
Meanwhile, senior National Conference leader and one of Commission’s five Associate members Justice Hasnain Masoodi, while speaking to Greater Kashmir, said, “We don’t know about it. The Commission has not informed us as to when it is going to make the draft public. But we, too, are expecting it to happen anytime. Anyway, we’ve told them that our (NC’s) detailed objections or an exhaustive dissent report should also be placed in public domain along with the draft as and when it happens.”
Besides Justice Hasnain, other four Associate members of the Commission included Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mohammed Akbar Lone from National Conference and Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma from BJP.
Earlier on March 4, 2022, both the National Conference and BJP had submitted their suggestions and objections to the tweaked draft of the Commission. Prior to, they had submitted their objections to the initial draft on December 31, 2021 and then again to revised draft on February 14, 2022.