J&K Delimitation: Must Be Fair
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-12-24 09:07:33
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
The delimitation commission for the Union Territory (UT) has, in a draft proposal, suggested 6 more seats for the Jammu region and 1 for the Kashmir valley in redrawing the boundaries for the assembly constituencies in the UT. Since delimitation is as of now done mainly based on population, this means that the proposed 43 seats in Jammu will each be backed by an average of 1,24,347 people while the proposed 47 seats in the Valley will have 1,46,563 in every seat.
This is a huge anomaly that will arouse suspicion. Since the given population of Kashmir is 6,888,475 and that of Jammu 5,350,811 as per the 2011 Census, if we take the 1,24,347 people per seat being allocated for Jammu as the benchmark, the seats in Kashmir should be 55, up 9 from the present 46. Hence, the rationale of giving 6 more seats to Jammu and only 1 to Kashmir is not clear and needs to be explained by the commission. The opposition parties in the Valley have said that these draft proposals are not acceptable.
Although the commission might have considered other factors like physical features, boundaries of administrative units, communication facilities and public convenience (as provided for in the delimitation acts), the fact remains that in a politically-sensitive UT, since population is the main base of the delimitation exercise, such a huge difference of number of people per seat in two regions is bound to raise eyebrows and invite dissent.
Since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and the continued clamping of severe restrictions in the UT have meant that voices from the Valley are not being heard, it is necessary that any reorganization is done fairly. The commission should make public the reasons for allotting 6 more seats to the Jammu region despite it having a lower population than the Valley region to show that it has done so fairly to dispel the doubts in the minds of the people and the political parties from the Valley region. Otherwise, it will be seen as another move to disempower the people of the Kashmir valley.
