The Election Commission on Monday appointed Hirdesh Kumar( 47), a 1999 batch IAS officer, as the new Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jammu & Kashmir. The EC issued a notification announcing the appointment of Kumar and asked the Jammu&Kashmir administration to ensure that the new CEO takes charge “immediately”.
He originally belongs to Uttar Pradesh. He was the District Magistrate in the districts such as Chitrakoot, Ghazipur and Ghaziabad. Presently, he is posted as Secretary, School Education Department and Social Welfare Department. His name was selected from a panel of names sent by the J-K administration to the EC.
According to the EC, the delimitation process of J-K is expected to start within a month. Last delimitation was done in J&K in 1995-1996. Besides redefining the boundaries of the existing 83 Assembly seats and five Lok Sabha seats, the commission would almost bring the representative character of the Jammu region at par with that of the valley.