The new map also shows three districts — Muzaffarabad, Punch and Mirpur — which are under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Two days after Jammu and Kashmir was officially bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, the Union Home Ministry on Saturday released the new political map of the country showing 28 states and nine Union Territories.
Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday transitioned from a state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh — nearly three months after Parliament revoked the state’s special status by abrogating Article 370. On the recommendation of the Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind effectively abrogated Article 370 from the Indian Constitution and issued the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, in August.
The new map also shows three districts — Muzaffarabad, Punch and Mirpur — which are under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The Ladakh Union Territory consists of two districts — Kargil and Leh — while the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory comprises 20 districts.
In a gazette notification, the government also enumerated the territories in Leh district as: “Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilas, Tribal territory and Leh and Ladakh, except the present territory of Kargil.”
The order was called the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Second Order, 2019.
The map of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory comprises 20 districts, including Muzaffarabad, Mirpur and the area of Poonch, which are under PoK.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Puducherry, while Ladakh will be a Union Territory without a legislature like Chandigarh. Both will be headed by separate Lieutenant Governors.
The L-Gs of the newly formed Union Territories were sworn in on Friday, along with the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The central government has appointed serving IAS officer of Gujarat cadre Girish Chandra Murmu as the L-G of Jammu and Kashmir, and retired bureaucrat of Tripura cadre Radha Krishna Mathur as the L-G of Ladakh.
In 1947, the former Jammu and Kashmir state had 14 districts — Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Reasi, Anantnag, Baramulla, Poonch, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Leh and Ladakh, Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chillies and Tribal Territory.
By 2019, the government of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had reorganised the areas of these 14 districts into 28 districts. The names of the new districts were — Kupwara, Bandipur, Ganderbal, Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shupian, Kulgam, Rajouri, Ramban, Doda, Kishtivar, Samba and Kargil. Out of these, Kargil district was carved out from the area of Leh and Ladakh district.
List of Union Territories:
1. Andaman and Nicobar
2. Chandigarh
3. Daman and Diu
4. Dadar and Nagar Haveli
5. Delhi
6. Jammu and Kashmir
7. Ladakh
8. Lakshadweep
9. Puducherry
