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Shah considering Delimitation Commission in J&K

New Delhi: While the Bharatiya Janta Party emphasised on the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution of India which provide special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in its election manifesto, Union Home Minister Amit Shah seems to hit the ground, not wasting time with a series of review meetings on his catalogue. But this time restructuring the Assembly constituencies of the state will be one of the main focus agendas, sources said.

At the very kernel, the delimitation of Assembly seats in the state is said to be the prime focus of the minister. A ministry source said that Shah has already held a closed-door meeting with Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satyapal Malik after he took charge and on Tuesday he called on Director, Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba at North Block. The appointment of the Delimitation Commission is also on the board.

The commission is established by the Indian government under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act, which redraws the boundaries of the various assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. The representation from each state is not changed during this exercise. However, the numbers of SC and ST seats in a state are changed in accordance with the census.

The move by the government might have reason to correct the inequity and anomalies of regional disparity long suffered by Jammu province since 1996, and also provide representation to all reserved categories in the Assembly.

Importantly, the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, enacted in 1957, was based on the Maharaja's Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir of 1939. A bicameral legislature was envisaged under Section 46 of the constitution. Sheikh Abdullah, the second chief minister's administration carved out 30 seats for Jammu region, 43 seats for Kashmir region and two seats for Ladakh region. At present, the Assembly has 87 elected seats with Kashmir having 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.

Besides, during the President's Rule, with the intervention of the Governor, the situation can be changed. The Governor can amend Section 47 of the Constitution to delete the proviso that barred the setting up of a Delimitation Commission.

The President's rule is being imposed to the state since December 2018.

On Monday afternoon, home minister Amit Shah had met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at the ministry office and on the evening of Tuesday the Union Minister further met the oil and gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, external affairs minister S Jayshankar, rail minister Piyush Goyal and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

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