The Central Government will soon set up a Commission to carry out delimitation of Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which is now a Union Territory, government sources said as quoted by ANI.
Sources familiar with the development further added the delimitation work will only be carried out after the commission is set up by the Centre and a number of seats of the Union Territory will be decided.
The development came on the backdrop of the Upper House of the parliament, Rajya Sabha, on Monday, gave its nod to the resolution scrapping Article 370 from the valley that gives special status to the state.
The Rajya Sabha approved the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill 2019, that sought to divide the state into two territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir as a one Union Territory will have a legislature along with an L-G, while Ladakh without legislature.
Currently, Jammu and Kashmir as a state have the 87-member assembly of elected MLAs. The Kashmir valley region has 46 seats, the Jammu region has 37 seats and the Ladakh region has 4 seats.
As per the bill move in Parliament, The Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir will have a Lieutenant Governor and the maximum strength of its legislative Assembly will be of 107 seats which will be further enhanced to 114 after delimitation move.
Earlier on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah tabled a resolution to this effect in Rajya Sabha following which President Ram Nath Kovind issued a gazette notification – The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, that will come into force immediately.
ALSO READ:
- Governor Satya Pal Malik holds a meeting to review the ground situation of Valley after scrapping of Article 370
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah to table three important bill of Jammu and Kashmir in Lok Sabha today
- Congress MP Bhubaneshwar Kalita steps down from Rajya Sabha opposing party’s stand on scrapping Article 370