SRINAGAR: National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah and two other MPs from Kashmir have been nominated as associate members of delimitation commission set-up by the Government of India for fixing boundaries of assembly segments in the newly carved out Union Territory.

According to reports, speaker Om Birla has nominated 15 MPs from Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to assist the Delimitation Commission in redrawing the Lok Sabha and the Assembly constituencies of the northeastern states and the Union Territory.

Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Jitendra Singh and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah are among the 15 MPs who will be associates of the Delimitation Commission, said the reports.

According to a May 26 Lok Sabha bulletin, Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone Hasnain Masoodi, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Singh will be the panel’s associate members from Jammu and Kashmir, Rijiju and Tapir Gao will represent Arunachal Pradesh and Pallab Lochan Das, Abdul Khaleque, Rajdeep Roy, Dilip Saikia and Naba (Hira) Kumar Sarania will represent Assam.

While Lorho S Pfoze and Ranjan Singh Rajkumar represent Manipur, Tokheho Yepthomi will be from Nagaland.

The appointments were made after the Commission had recently written to Birla and other presiding officers of the Assemblies to nominate associate members. They will help the panel in its task.

Jammu and Kashmir at present has no Assembly. It is a Union Territory with a provision of a legislature.

The Commission, constituted on March 6 headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, met on Thursday to review its work.

Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four northeastern States will be its ex-officio members.

The order didn’t mention the time period in which the Delimitation Commission will submit report, but it said the appointment of Justice Desai will be for a period of one year or till further orders whichever is earlier which indicated that the Commission might take an year’s time for fixing boundaries of 90 Assembly seats granted to the Legislature of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Commission will delimit the constituencies of the Union Territory in accordance with the provisions of Part V of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act, 2002.

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