Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 23
TODAY’S PROPOSED meeting between the Delimitation Commission of India and associate members from Nagaland was deferred to a later date, stalling the readjustment exercise further. Informing of the postponement, BJP legislator Tiameren said the associate members were equally interested in “settling the affair quickly” as “our time is also being eaten up.”
He was responding to an earlier letter addressed to the six associate members from Nagaland by the Delimitation Commission. The letter had blamed the Nagaland government for delaying the delimitation exercise undertaken by the commission.Tiameren said the government is also expecting a judgment from the High Court in regard to the delimitation exercise.
Today’s postponement assumes significance as the commission from the Centre had only recently written that “frequent requests from the Associate Members for postponement of scheduled meetings puts the Commission is a difficult situation.”
In a letter to the associate members, the commission had stated: “In the circumstances, the Commission is constrained to say that no further request to postpone the scheduled meeting shall be entertained by the Commission. You are requested to kindly co-operate with the Commission in its endeavour to delimit the constituencies of the State in the best possible manner.”
The point of disagreement between the Central commission and the Nagaland government lies in the fact that while the former recommends the allocation of seats to the state’s districts should be on the basis of tribal population, the latter insists on maintaining a status quo.
Another associate member, member of legislative assembly Nyeiwang Konyak, today reiterated that the government’s stand was rooted in the resolution of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly panel which had supported maintenance of status quo in 2005. Saying that they were looking to come to terms with the commission, he said, “We do not have any individual opinion.”
The commission had originally worked out the entitlement of constituencies on the basis of the 2001 census but the associate members had insisted on maintaining status quo on the number of seats for each district. This drew opposition from a large cross-section of tribal leaders and public. The delimitation commission had then sent a Joint Action Committee to ascertain the views of political parties and tribal leaders, after which it had recommended allocation of seats according to tribal population and that the formation of assembly constituencies should take into account the composition of the tribes in different districts.
The commission contends that though it has been given details of the composition of tribes in the districts by the Joint Action Committee, the Nagaland government is “refusing to give it officially to the Commission on the ground that the list is going to be corrected.”
“The Associate Members have also time and again refused to discuss the two sets of the Paper-6 prepared by the Commission and by the SEC in consultation with political parties. The Delimitation Commission views this with utmost concern.”
The commission has almost completed delimitation of all other states and intends to finalise the exercise in Nagaland.
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