J&K LEADERS IN DELHI TODAY FOR KEY ALL-PARTY MEET WITH PM

SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Mainstream leaders from Jammu and Kashmir arrived in Delhi for a key allparty meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, the first such outreach since the controversial scrapping of the region’s special status and its bifurcation two years ago.

The meeting, to be attended by 14 political leaders, doesn’t have any fixed agenda but Kashmir leaders have indicated that they will press for restoration of Article 370 and full statehood. “The biggest thing what has been taken away from us should be given back to us,” said Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, spokesperson for the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti arrived in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon and NC president Farooq Abdullah will fly to Delhi on Thursday morning.

JAMMU: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-party meet scheduled to be held on Thursday, election commission on Wednesday held deliberations with all the 20 deputy magistrates of the union territory via video-conference.

“Election commission held deliberations with all the deputy magistrates via video conferencing and it asked basic statistics like population, number of constituencies, Patwar and Halqas, geographical boundaries and topography,” said one of the deputy magistrates, requesting anonymity.

In July last year the delimitation panel had sought substantial information from J&K administration in various formats like maps, statistics, Census 2011 figures, new tehsils, patwars and halqas.

Union Law Ministry has constituted the Delimitation Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.