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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

05/03/22 09:45 AM IST

‘voter islands’

In news 

Political leaders participating in the delimitation process as well as independent observers have raised fears of “islands” being formed.

Details 
  • The Delimitation Act, 2002 says that apart from population, the constituencies have to be geographically compact areas and contiguous. Observers say this principle is not being followed in the ongoing Delimitation exercise.
  • For example, in Kishtwar district, where the number of constituencies has been proposed to be increased from two to three (Mughalmaidan, Kishtwar and Padder), Bounjwah tehsil was proposed to be in the Mughalmaidan constituency. However, one village in the tehsil, Kewah, would be completely surrounded by villages in the Kishtwar constituency.
  • The draft proposals had used the boundaries of the patwar halqa, an administrative unit of multiple villages, which in some cases included villages that were not located next to each other.
  • This has happened because the basic principles have not been followed. 
  • The Commission “has carved out geographical islands and joined with the other Assembly segments without any proximity or connectivity”.
Delimitation Exercise in J &K 
  • The first delimitation exercise, carving out 25 assembly constituencies in the then state, was carried out by a Delimitation Committee in 1951.
  • The first full-fledged Delimitation Commission was formed in 1981 and it submitted its recommendations in 1995 on the basis of 1981 Census. Since then, there has been no delimitation.
  • J&K saw the last delimitation exercise in 1994-95, after 22 years, which resulted in an increase in the number of Assembly constituencies from 76 to 87.
  • The Jammu region saw an increase of five seats (from 32 to 37 seats), the Kashmir region an increase of four seats (from 42 to 46) and Ladakh two seats (from two to four).
Delimitation Commission 
  • Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.
  • Once the Act is in force, the Union government sets up a Delimitation Commission made up of a retired Supreme Court judge, the Chief Election Commissioner and the respective State Election Commissioners.
  • The Commission is supposed to determine the number and boundaries of constituencies in a way that the population of all seats, so far as practicable, is the same.
  • The Commission is also tasked with identifying seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; these are where their population is relatively large.
  • All this is done on the basis of the latest Census.
Source- The Hindu

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