By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: The Delimitation Commission, which is visiting Jammu and Kashmir from Tuesday, is flooded with requests for meetings from different political and non-political groups. As many as 150 groups want to meet the panel which is empowered to fix boundaries of assembly and parliamentary segments in Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory.
Talking to Precious Kashmir, J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer, Hirdesh Kumar said 150 delegations have so far made requests for meeting the commission. “We are still getting requests and the number could go up,” said Kumar.
Kumar, whose office is coordinating the visit of the panel, said the commission is likely to meet all the delegations.
Earlier, the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had asked the UT’s political parties, groups and organisations desiring to meet the panel to approach district election officers(DEOs) so that time slot can be reserved for them.
During its four-day visit, the Commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice (retd.) Ranjana Desai will interact with different political parties, public representatives and officials of Union Territory administration including district election officers to gather first-hand information and input concerning the on-going process of delimitation.
The delimitation commission was constituted on March 6, 2020 to fix boundaries for Assembly and Parliamentary segments. It will also reserve seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the 90-member Assembly of J&K UT.
Five MPs- three from National Conference and two from Bharatiya Janta Party- are associate members of the commission.
So far, National Conference has abstained from proceedings of the panel, saying the law under which it was set-up has been challenged by it in the Supreme Court.
The panel was set-up under “The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act-2019”.
