A A Latief u Zaman Deva
The table below substantiates the popular perceptions about the extent of fairness actually adopted in delimitation of Assembly constituencies by the Delimitation Commission:
× Excluding one lakh migrant population residing in Jammu Distt out of whom the eligible persons are registered as voters in the respective Assembly Segments of Kashmir Division.
xx Total population of Kashmir Division shots up from 68.90 to 70.70 lakhs by including 02 lakh migrants who during Census 2011 have been enumerated in the population of Distts of their current domicile in Jammu Division / States-UTs in rest of the country as the case may be. Consequently the population of Jammu Division gets reduced to 52.51 lakhs by excluding 1.20 lakh migrants . The remaining 0. 80 lakh are residing outside JK in rest of the country. The Distt wise break up of migrant population in the Kashmir Division is not forthcoming but on the basis of migrant voters registered the population together with migrants in Distts of Srinagar, Anantnag & Baramullah is likely to be 13.20 (1.65*) ,11.30 (1.60*) & 10.50 (1.47*) lakhs respectively which the Delimitation Commission has not accounted for in the calculations when it adopted the Distt population on the basis of Census 2011. From out of the Distts; Doda, Rajouri , Udhampur, Kishtwar & Kupwara rightly deserved the additional one Segment each but it is gerrymandering in configuration and re-Configuration of Assembly Constituencies in Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Kishtiwar & Rajouri Distts which can’t be defended on any ground including the primary factor of geographical compactness and actual connectivity. Examples galore & can be appreciated during public outreach provided persons charged with the authority don’t have pre- conceived notions for empowering a particular religious community disproportionately beyond 28% in 90 member House of representatives.
# The underlying purpose behind the reference to % of Villages declared backward & literacy rate is to enable the readers/viewers to visualise the socio-economic status of each Distt taken up for the analysis. Otherwise the UT as a whole is a single unit before the Delimitation Commission for purposes of fixing the boundaries of 90 Assembly Segments based on Distt profiles.
##Against 07 additional seats + 01 becoming available due to reconfiguration of Constituencies in Distt Jammu ( 7+1=8) the analysis reveals the requirement of 9 seats & therefore as a policy matter for harmonising the implications of the operational effects of the distribution the accretion of one seat from either of 8 Distts meriting allocation of additional seats may be withdrawn. However just as Anantnag west has been proposed by abolishing Homshalibugh in Distt Kulgam the same way the one becoming surplus in Distt Jammu can be used for suggested 3rd or 4th Constituency in Distts of Ramban/Punch respectively.
*Distt wise average population per Constituency
Source:- Digest of statistics 2019-20- Geography of JK- JK Reservations Act and Rules.
The author is former Chairman JKPSC and can be reached on aaluzdeva_221256@ymail.com