Click to play videoNew Delhi: Thirty years after the last delimitation exercise, the demographics across the country have altered drastically. But the Government is still finding it difficult to push through the re-drawing of the boundaries of constituencies.
"The delimitation process has to be compelted by 2009 when the next General Elections will take place," says Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
However, the redrawing of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats by Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Kuldeep Singh could get delayed further as it would be based on the 2001 census.
Politcal parties across the spectrum faced with the prospect of loosing 'safe' seats have raised a number of objections.
To address that, the Government has circulated a fresh 14-page note of proposals, which proposes amendments to the Delimitation Act 2002.
Migration to urban areas means the number of seats in urban India will go up as delimitation is to be done on the basis of population. The Government proposes an amendment to relax the requirement of population as the sole criteria.
To avoid disturbing existing constituencies, the commission will be asked to allow a leeway of a 25 per cent increase or decrease in population.
States like Kerala, West Bengal and Maharashtra have seen an increase in SC population, which means bigwigs like Spekaer Somnath Chaterjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil stand to loose as their seats will now be reserved.
The note says - increase the number of general category seats as well to compensate them.
"The Constitution says that you cannot increase the number of seats till 2025. We don't know how they can ask for such things," says CPM leader Sitaram Yechury.
Futher, in states where the population of SC and ST's have diminished as per 2001, the Governmnet says staus quo should be maintained.
The note also points out that redrawing boundaries in states like Nagaland will be a complicated and sensitive affair as the Naga tribes have their own distinct traditional boundries. Therefore, the Governmnet has asked political parties for a special exemption here.
Then, there is the contentious Women's Reservation Bill and if the Bill includes a proposal to increase seats, the whole delimitaion exrecise will have to be revisited.
While the Government maintains that it will be aiming for a consensus at Friday's meeting, most political parties to whom this note has been circulated, say it will be difficult for them to accept the proposals as they are untenable.
So, the delimitaion exercise it seems has run into rough weather atleast for a while now.
(With Elizabeth Jane)
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