Srinagar: The National Conference has urged the Delimitation Commission to withdraw its proposal under which it said it has “arbitrarily increased” six seats to Jammu region while allotting just a single seat to Kashmir. The three MPs of the party from Kashmir – who serve as associate members of the Commission – said this while filing objections to the Delimitation Commission on February 14. The Commission is tasked with redrawing the boundaries of assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir following the splitting of the state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. The National Conference leaders said the delimitation exercise may be stopped till disposal of a batch of writ petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019. “The Commission has in the first place arbitrarily devised some unknown criteria while apportioning and identifying increased seven seats and selectively applied the criteria so fixed and thereafter allotted seats compromising the fundamental principle of population as the main criteria,” the party said. They said the “arbitrary allocation” of increased seats for reasons other than “contemplated” under law and logic have now made a huge “violation” of fundamental principles of a delimitation exercise unavoidable. The “parameters or indicators” of “criteria” were not made known to the associate members, the MPs said. “Habakadal, Amirakadal, Zadibal, Shangus, Kokernag, Sangrama, Gulmarg, Hom Shali Bugh, Inderwal, Gandhi Nagar are made to disappear and completely obliterated, unmindful of their emotional, psychological value and importance,” they said. “The constituencies have been demarcated, areas joined and areas annexed … for reasons other than permissible under settled norms.” UNI MJR MR
