The Election Commission of India on Wednesday began public hearings in Guwahati on its delimitation proposal for Assam, and the team will be in the state till Friday to meet representatives from political parties, civil society organisations among others.
The public hearings are part of a consultative exercise by the poll body during the process of delimitation. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar as well as election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel are hearing representatives from political parties, civil society organisations and other sections of society over three days till Friday, the ECI said.
On the first day, the ECI received more than 270 representations. Till Friday, it is likely to receive over 770, the ECI added. The team will be meeting national and state political parties on Thursday.
The commission had visited Guwahati in March before the delimitation exercise began. During the consultations then, the ECI received representations from 11 political parties and 71 organisations.
After the delimitation proposal for Assam was published in June, the ECI invited suggestions and objections, the last date for which was July 11. “Over 780 representations have been received during this period,” the ECI said.
Last month, the ECI published the draft proposal for delimitation of assembly and Lok Sabha seats in the state. It was an exercise pending for long, as the last delimitation exercise was carried out in 1976.
The delimitation proposal seeks to retain the number of Lok Sabha seats at 14 and the number of assembly seats at 126. The scheduled tribes are proposed to be allocated 19 out of 126 seats in the state assembly, and two of the 14 LS seats. The scheduled castes are proposed to be allocated nine seats in the assembly, and one seat in the Lok Sabha.
Delimitation means the “act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body”. In India, this job is assigned to the delimitation commission or a boundary commission, which has been formed four times – 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952; in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962; in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972; and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.
When the exercise was carried out in 2002, Assam, along with Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, was left out after a PIL was filed in the Gauhati High Court challenging the use of the 2001 Census for reference. In February 2020, then President Ram Nath Kovind paved the way for the delimitation exercise in Assam.
Comments
0 comment