A day after Modi government set up a delimitation commission to redraw the territorial constituencies of the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir, Congress leader and grandson of Hari Singh who signed Instrument of Accession, welcomed the decision of the Modi government but also expressed apprehensions regarding the using of 2011 census data for delimitations of constituencies.
On Saturday, Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh took to Twitter to state that setting up of Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir was a welcome step. However, he raised doubts regarding using 2011 census as the data for the process and called it a “critical mistake”.
Vikramaditya Singh stated that evidence showed that census data of 2011 pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir was fudged and using it for delimiting new constituencies will be a mistake. He also urged the government to use 2021 census data as the base data.
Setting up of delimitation commission for Jammu & Kashmir is a welcome step. However to base it on 2011 census will be a critical mistake. All evidence shows J&K census was fudged/bogus. As 2021 census is on the anvil I urge GOI to review its decision. @HMOIndia @AnkurSharma_Adv https://t.co/wz7uyhw4k4
— Vikramaditya Singh (@vikramaditya_JK) March 7, 2020
The Modi government on Saturday had constituted a Delimitation Commission to redraw Lok Sabha and Assembly Constituencies of the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
The Delimitation Commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states will be the ex-officio members.
Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislative body. The new delimitation will enable the process of redrawing the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the four northeastern states.
The last delimitation across the country was conducted in 2002, but these states were left out due to various reasons. In the four states of North East India, delimitation could not be carried out along with other Indian states due to prevailing security reasons. But now, the government thinks the situation has changed.
The delimitation in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir comes nine months after the controversial Article 370 was scrapped and the state was divided into two union territories. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was cleared in Parliament in August 2019, mentioned new delimitation to redraw the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir according to section 62 of the Act.
