The Centre on Tuesday avoided providing a direct reply on whether it was planning to conduct a delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir to “remove regional imbalance in the State.” It also skirted a question on whether it planned to extend the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise across the entire country.
Earlier, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi raised a question in the Lok Sabha as to whether J&K had not been included in the delimitation exercise taken up in the country and whether the government was considering undertaking it with a view to remove the regional imbalance in the State.
Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy said in a written response that J&K was not included within the purview of the Delimitation Act, 2002, as Article 170 of the Constitution of India that deals with delimitation of constituencies of State Assemblies had not been extended to the State.
“Delimitation of legislative Assembly constituencies in J&K is carried out under Section 47 and 141 of the Constitution of J&K,” Mr. Reddy said.
He said there were 37,33,111 voters in the Jammu division, 40,10,971 in the Kashmir division and 1,79,147 in the Ladakh division.
He also said that the Election Commission of India had not fixed the dates for holding the Assembly elections in the State.
Responding to another question, on whether there was any proposal to extend NRC across the country and if so when, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai merely said, “The exercise to update NRC 1951 is being conducted under the special provisions in respect of State of Assam.”
“The NRC is being updated at present in the State of Assam as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the provisions contained in the Schedule framed under Rule 4A (4) of Citizenship Rules, 2003. NRC, Assam was prepared in 1951 as a non-statutory process by recording particulars of all persons enumerated during Census 1951,” Mr. Rai added.
In its election manifesto the BJP had said it would introduce NRC across the country. Last week, President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech mentioned that the NRC would be implemented on a “priority basis in areas affected by infiltration.”
As per directions of the Supreme Court, the Registrar General of India (RGI) published the final draft list of NRC on July 30 last year to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the State from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971. Almost 40 lakh people were excluded from the final draft. The final NRC is to be published by July 31.
