Daya Sagar
Work for Delimitation of Single Member Assembly Segments for Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K and Parliamentary constituencies of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions of part V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) and the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2002) has been taken up by Delimitation Commission in terms Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) notification No: S.O. 1015(E) Date, 6th March 2020 in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2021 (constituting the Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland).
PART – 1
83 MLA segments out 87 of the Legislative Assembly (LA) of erstwhile J&K State have been retained for the Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K (comprising of the Jammu and Kashmir regions) and additional provision of 7 more MLAs has also been made in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, Act No 34 of August 2019 thereby increasing the number to 90. In addition to increasing the number of MLAs provision of reservations for Schedule Tribe (ST) has also been made ( Section-14-(3,6&,7). Hence before constituting the first Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K exercise for delimitation of Single Member segments of the Legislative Assembly had become a pre requisite and hence Delimitation exercise has been started with the appointment of a Delimitation Commission in March 2020 .
Right since 1951 (when delimitation was done for Constituent Assembly of J&K on adhoc basis) and even after 1957 no any fair delimitation in consonance with the guidelines as laid in the J&K Representation of the People Act of 1957, Act No IV of 1957 had been done in the past for the Legislative Assembly of erstwhile State of J&K and hence Common man of UT of J&K is very hopefully waiting for a fair Delimitation Order (atleast after 70 years) from the present Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai .
No doubt after the passage of the Reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir Act of 2019, Act No.34 of 2019 the J&K RPA of 1957 is not there but the guidelines which are there for Delimitation Commission as per Section-9.1(a) Delimitation Act 2002 and as in Sections – 59 & Sub- Section-2 of Section-60 of Act No. 34 of 2019 are almost like as were there in J&K RP Act of 1957, Act No IV.1957.
It would have better had first the District Administrative Units in the UT of J&K been reorganised which would have given a better overview of the physicals of the UT of J&K since the district boundaries and number of units do help in taking a fair view of the local needs and for UT of J&K that is very important. To be brief the UT of J&K has two distinct Regions, 1. Jammu Region 2. Kashmir Region (Valley). All these years both in the Legislative Assembly and in the matter of locating District Administrative Units the distant and backward areas & people have been unfairly treated and most of these fall in Jammu Region. To be brief in 1978 Jammu Region had 6 District Administrative Units (Doda, Udhampur, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu) and Kashmir Region had only 3 District Administrative Units (Baramulla, Anantnag, Srinagar) where as in 2021 Jammu Region has 10 Districts ( Doda, Udhampur, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, +Kishtwar, Ramban, Reasi, Samba) and Kashmir Region also has 10 Districts (Baramulla, Anantnag, Srinagar + Kupwara, Bandipora, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Badgam, Ganderbal). Anyhow now the Delimitation Commission has started the Delimitation exercise although it was requested that before that reorganisation of Districts be done still it is l very much hoped that present Delimitation Commission will surely undo the wrongs of earlier Delimitation order of April 1995. The only and the first regular order for delimitation of the Legislative Assembly Segments of erstwhile J&K State that was made on 27 April 1995 by a Delimitation Commission that was appointed in 1981 ( SRO No; 537 of 02-12-1981, Justice J.N Wazir was the 1st Chairman and Justice K. K. Gupta was the last Chairman ) was supposed to have been issued in terms of guidelines as were laid down in J&K Representation of the Peoples Act 1957 (JK RPA of 1957) , Section- 4, Sub Section -2 . But to any fair wisdom that too technically appeared unfair to the common man of J&K ( particularly those who are placed in distant & backward areas and more of such areas / people fell in Jammu Region) like was the adhoc delimitation for the segments of the Constituent Assembly of J&K State done in 1951 since that did violate the common man centric guiding principles laid down in JK RPA 1957 which in principle was designed to provide a representative of nearness (MLA) in the Legislative Assembly to a common subject of J&K State.
So, otherwise also before 2019 repeated demands were there for ordering fresh delimitation since 1995 Delimitation ( on basis of 1981 Census) of LA Segments had not been that minutely and fairly done on the basis of JK RPA 1957 guidelines like 1. Geographical Compactness/ Area (Jammu nearly 165% of Kashmir valley) 2. Terrain ( very bad in Jammu region) 3.Means of communication/ connectivity (road connectivity much -much poor in Jammu Region (in comparison) 4.Population 5.And like Factors. Continued (Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalist & a known analyst of J&K affairs dayasagr45@yahoo.com)