Srinagar: At least 18 seats are likely to be reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory.
In the 90-member Legislative Assembly, 7 seats are likely to be reserved for SCs and 11 for STs keeping in view the legal provisions governing reservation for these communities in Assembly of J&K .
A senior official told Precious Kashmir that seats have to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population to the total population in UT.
“As per the census of 2011, J&K has 7.38 percent Scheduled Caste (SC) population and 11.91% Scheduled Tribe (ST) population. So their proportionate representation in 90 -member Assembly works out to 6.64 seats and 10.71 seats, respectively. So seven seats will be reserved for SCs and 11 for STs as the fraction more than one-half is counted as one and fractions less than one-half is ignored,” he said.
Under Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats in the Assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir or of the Scheduled Tribes in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in respect of which seats are so reserved, bears to the total population of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
This will be for the first time when STs will have reservation in J&K Assembly. In erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, only Schedule Castes had political reservation. As many as seven seats were reserved for them.
It is worthwhile to mention that a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Desai was constituted to fix boundaries for Assembly seats of Jammu and Kashmir and reserve seats for schedule castes and schedule tribes.
The constituencies to be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall, as far as practicable, be located in areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest.