Arunachal Assembly unanimous on status-quo in delimitation

Itanagar, Mar 24 (UNI) Cutting across party lines, the members of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a private member's resolution to urge the Centre to maintain status-quo in delimitation of Assembly constituencies in the state.

Congress legislator Takam Sorang informed the house yesterday that the delimitation commission's associate members in a meeting with the commission's Chairman Justice kuldeep Singh had pointed out that the delimitation on the basis of 2001 census figure would disturb the demographic pattern and ethno-cultural diversity of indigenous population of the state.

Pleading to maintain status-quo of existing 60 Assembly constituencies in the greater interest of the state, all the members suggested for delimitation, if required on the basis of only tribal population, which was 7,05,158 out of 10,97,968 people in the state.

Arunachal Congress (AC) member J K Panggeng said the Assembly should convey the sentiments of the people on the issue to the Centre. He, however, pointed out that the state MPs should have raised the issue in Parliament.

BJP legislator Bosiram Siram, NCP legislators and a number of Independent MLAs also supported the resolution.

Parliamentary Affairs and Panchayati Raj Minister Tako Dabi while participating in the discussion, advocated that the population could be divided among the existing constituencies in tune with the commission's guidelines, before the resolution was passed by voice vote.

UNI UPB SP MSJ SP1055