The Hindu : Bill on delimitation of constituencies okayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

National

National

Bill on delimitation of constituencies okayed

By Our Special Correspondenti

New Delhi May 8. The Rajya Sabha today unanimously approved the Constitution (Ninety-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2003, seeking to make the 2001 census the basis for delimitation of constituencies of the Lok Sabha and State legislatures. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

A majority of members wanted the exercise to be completed well before the next Lok Sabha polls. Some members demanded reservation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes constituencies on a rotational basis.

Replying to the discussion, the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, said the Delimitation Commission would continue with its work on the basis of the provisional 2001 census data.

The provisional data does not contain the break-up for SC/ST, which will be available in the firmed-up data.

The final figures were expected to be available by September-October.

On the question of reservation of constituencies for SC/ST, Mr. Jaitley said while the freeze on the number of constituencies till 2026 would continue, the number of constituencies to be determined for SC/ST would be on the basis of the 2001 census. He said there had been no political consensus on the issue of rotation of constituencies for SC/ST.

Explaining the freeze on the number of constituencies till 2026, Mr. Jaitley said that according to the National Population Policy, the population was likely to stabilise in 2026.

To change the number of constituencies before that would be contrary to the Population Policy as States which performed well would get lower number of political representation in Parliament as against States which did not do well to stabilise the population.

On the concerns of the Opposition members about the delimitation exercise on 2001 census to be completed well in time before the Lok Sabha polls, the Minister said with the availability of IT software it was possible to do it by November.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National