NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The Delimitation Commission has ordered a freeze on creation of new ‘administrative units’ in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal and Jammu & Kashmir till the exercise of redrawing constituencies in these northeastern states and the union territory is completed.
The order says the freeze is effective from 15 June, a senior officer aware of the development said.
An administrative unit may include a district or a tehsil.
The Delimitation Commission is carrying out the delimitation exercise, and if a new administrative unit is created, it also will have to be made part of a constituency.
For every new such unit created, the commission will have to go back to the drawing board. To avoid that, the freeze has been ordered, explained the officer.
The delimitation panel would redraw the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the four NE states and work on increasing the assembly seats of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir as per the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.
The Delimitation Commission for the four Northeast states and Jammu & Kashmir was set up in March. It is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is the representative of the EC in the delimitation panel while state election commissioners of Jammu & Kashmir and the four states are ex-officio members. (PTI)
