The Election Commission has begun the process of delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir. It held the first meeting regarding the same on Tuesday.
Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislative body.
The meeting was attended by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, among other senior officials of poll body.
According to sources, the commission is also familiarising itself with the provisions of the Bill that will divide the state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh that will come into effect on October 31.
“It was a meeting to inform the commission members about the provisions of the Act and the process that was followed for carrying out delimitation when new states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were carved out,” the official said.
The meeting comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government made a historic move and revoked Article 370 in J&K. It announced that the state would be divided into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly, Ladakh without Assembly.
According to earlier reports, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs was mulling the appointment of a delimitation commission to study the feasibility of the exercise.
The exercise of delimitation will be carried out in J&K after over two decades, in 2002, the J&K Assembly had passed a law putting a freeze on fresh delimitation of seats till 2026.
Last week, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he firmly believed that Article 370 has never helped the country of Jammu and Kashmir and should have been removed long ago.
“As a Home Minister, there was no confusion in my mind about the consequences of removing Article 370. I am confident terrorism in Kashmir will finish and it will move ahead on the path of development now”, Shah said.