New Delhi:
The Delimitation Commission, set up in March last year to redraw the electoral constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, is set to get an extension to complete its work, sources said on Tuesday.
An official notification in this regard could be issued on Wednesday, they added.
The panel has been tasked to redraw the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies of the four northeastern states and work on increasing the number of Assembly seats in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The commission has kept June 15, 2020 as the date for the freezing of the administrative districts in the four states and the Union Territory.
This would ensure that it does not have to rework on the delimitation exercise if a new administrative unit such as a panchayat or a tehsil is added to a state.
Last year, the Lok Sabha speaker had nominated 15 MPs as associate members of the Delimitation Commission.
The members include Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and Jitendra Singh, who will assist in redrawing the constituencies.
Members of Parliament and the legislative assemblies of the states for which the Delimitation Commission has been set up are drawn in as associate members to assist the panel in its task.
Jammu and Kashmir at present has no legislative assembly. It is a Union Territory with a provision for a legislature.
The government had, on March 6 last year, constituted the Delimitation Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.
Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states are its ex-officio members.
