Dimapur, March 18 (MExN): Refusing any delimitation arrangement, Khiamniungan Tribal Council and Atoizu Assembly Constituency, has cautioned against implementing the Delimitation Act 2002 in the respective areas.
A representation from the executives of the tribal council to the Deputy Commissioner of Tuensang stated that any readjustment or delimitation of assembly constituencies in 56th and 57th, Noklak and Thonoknyu respectively, other than the existing jurisdictions, is unacceptable and any attempt to affect the existing jurisdictions shall invite “serious law and order problems in the area.”
It stated that the council will not “compromise” for readjustment of assembly constituencies in the aforementioned areas for the reasons that “the past successive census drive is not genuine at all particularly 2001” and that the “electoral enumeration” was undertaken “with serious lapses and omissions due to misguidance of enumerating officials and partly due to ignorance of the masses.”
“…we would like to suggest the government to compare the census undertaken by the various departments and agencies like church body in particular to substantiate and ascertain the genuineness of our representation” the KTC stated.
In a separate statement, local authorities, GBs and students’ organizations falling under Atoizu constituency met on March 17 over the delimitation issue. In the meeting, it was resolved that not a single village or group of villages should be bifurcated and any decision taken unilaterally “with vested interest” as well as any proposal taken up without consulting the people regarding Atoizu ‘will be opposed tooth and nail”.
A note from ex-MLA N Yeshito Chishi explained that Atoizu was established in 1952 and had existed so for the last five decades ‘and should continue undisturbed’. It consisted of 18 villages as a single political entity from the first ever general elections in the state. The A/c welcomes addition of any new village or group of villages if delimitation is unavoidable but the constituency must remain intact, it asserted.
