Unjust J&K Delimitation of Assembly Seats
Date:
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The recommendations of the Jammu & Kashmir Delimitation Commission are patently unjustified and illogical.
As per 2011 Census, Kashmir’s population is 68.8 lakhs, while Jammu is 53.5 lakhs. As per the proposal, Kashmir gets 47 assembly seats and Jammu 43. A fair delimitation should have given 51 seats out of 90 to Kashmir.
Further, the constitution of the Delimitation Commission under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 in itself is questionable, as the Reorganisation Act has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The matter is still pending and, hence, is subjudice.
The proposal to give six additional seats for Jammu and one for Kashmir valley must be revisited and a fair delimitation done. The current proposal smacks of the political motivation aimed at changing the demographic character of Jammu & Kashmir.