The National Conference (NC) on Sunday, in a letter to the J&K Delimitation Commission, sought details of the agenda of an upcoming meeting scheduled for December 20 in New Delhi.
“We have asked the commission to provide us an agenda for the meeting scheduled to be held on 20th December, 2021 and the material pertaining to the agenda,” NC leader and Member of Parliament Hasnain Masoodi told The Hindu.
The commission, headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai, has extended a formal invitation to all five associate members of the commission, which includes three MPs of the NC and two of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It’s for the second time that a formal invitation was sent to the NC since the commission was constituted two years ago. So far, the NC has not attended any meeting of the commission.
“We have also reminded the commission that our last communication dated 17th December, 2020 has gone without any response,” Mr. Masoodi said.
The NC had shown interest in being a part of the Delimitation Commission after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an all-party meeting in New Delhi in June. It was seen as a major concession by the party to the Centre in the bid to push for a political process in Jammu & Kashmir in the wake of the Centre’s decisions of August 5, 2019. There has been no follow-up to the all-party meeting thus far.
The J&K Commission is mandated to carve out seven additional seats for the 83-member Assembly of the Union Territory. It is also likely to announce reservation for the Schedule Tribes (ST) and Schedule Castes (SC) in its report.
