Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 21
The Delimitation Commission of India is going to complete the re-alteration of constituencies in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur within two months time, it was informed. As earlier reported the delimitation process in four north eastern states were stalled due to the stay order of Gauhati High Court on account of petitions challenging the authenticity of the 2001 census in which the delimitation has been based on.
With the stay order of the Court being vacated by the Supreme Court recently, the re-adjustment of constituencies in those states is going to be over very soon. “The commission is going to complete the delimitation process in these states within two months”, the chairperson of the commission Kuldeep Singh was quoted as saying by a national newspaper.
In the context of Nagaland, it may be mentioned that Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio in his statement on Delimitation on the floor of the 10th Nagaland Legislative Assembly had suggested a arrangement, wherein considering the special position of Nagaland under the Constitution, Delimitation should not be implemented in the State until the number of seats in the Assembly was increased from 60 to 80.
However, tribal hohos of the three districts of Longleng, Peren, Wokha and Tseminyu sub-division of Kohima district had unanimously decided to give unconditional support to the Delimitation Commission to implement Delimitation in letter and spirit as enshrined in the Act. Contrary to this standpoint the Ao Senden, for instance had termed the 2001 state census as ‘bogus census’ and that the proposed delimitation of assembly constituencies in the state on the basis of the 2001 census is a violation of constitutional provisions and had even threatened to seek justice through court of law.
The Naga Hoho on its part had earlier suggested to the Commission to consider the case of the districts deserving of additional seats but without affecting existing seats which stood to lose their allotted seats under the present delimitation exercise. This was conveyed by General Secretary of the Naga Hoho, Neingulo Krome, during a meeting of the Delimitation Commission with the tribe Hoho representatives, held earlier in April in Chumukedima, Dimapur.
It may be mentioned that the Delimitation Commission was constituted in the year 2002 and started its work from June 2004 based on the 2001 census figures, for re-adjustment of the territorial constituencies and to fix the seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and legislative assembly constituencies of the states.
(With inputs from Newmai News Network)
