The Delimitation Commission has ordered a freeze on creation of new ‘administrative units’ in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and 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 June 15, 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 then 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 northeastern states and, work on increasing the assembly seats of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir as per the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act.
The Delimitation Commission for the four northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir was set up in March.
It is headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai (retd). Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is the representative of the Election Commission in the delimitation panel while state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states are its ex-officio members.