Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 11: Accusing the vested interests of false propaganda and planting fake stories of an early delimitation in the State, Harsh Dev Singh, JKNPP chairman and former Minister today said that delimitation of Assembly seats had been ruled out in the near future in the newly enacted J&K Re-organization Act passed by both House of the Parliament.
He pointed out that Sec 63 of the JK Re-organization Act unambiguously stated that delimitation could not take place until the census figures for the year 2026 were published. Quoting the said provision in the Re-organization Act, Singh said that Sec 63 stated that “Notwithstanding anything contained in Sec 59 to 61, until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, it shall not be necessary to re-adjust the division of successor Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir into Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies…..”.
Harsh Dev Singh said that while Sec 59 to 61 provided for the increase of total number of seats in the State of J&K from 107 to 114, with 24 seats for PoJK remaining vacant, Sec 63 made a provision for timing of delimitation as per the prescribed formula. It was therefore clear from a plain reading of Sec 59 to 63 along with allied provisions in the new law that delimitation of 90 Assembly seats (114-24) could be done only after the first census held after the year 2026, he stated.
He said under such circumstances, the often planted news of delimitation of Assembly constituencies and increase of seats was a fraud and treachery being played by a particular political party to contain the summering discontent amongst the people of the region.
The former Minister observed that baseless rumours of an early delimitation were therefore being floated by these people to hoodwink the people of Jammu and to divert their attention from the highly unjust and capricious Re-organization of the State.
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