Parties see 'conspiracy' to dump Delimitation Commission

New Delhi, Oct 10 (UNI) A 14-page 'unsigned note' on delimitation circulated ahead of the all party meeting on the issue has stirred the hornets' nest with some groups seeing this as a 'conspiracy' to scuttle the four-year exercise carried out by Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Kuldip Singh.

Sources not wanting to be identified have said that the note authored by Mr J D Seelam, a Karnataka cadre IAS officer turned Rajya Sabha member, which is in circulation is seen as an attempt to undermine the work done by the Delimitation Commission which had completed its work in 16 states of the country. The Home Ministry has convened an all-party meeting on the issue on October 13.

Mr Seelam is understood to have offered a simple solution of treating each district as a unit for carrying out the delimitation process instead holding state as the unit. The Centre has already taken its decision not to enhance the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in each state until the next delimitation to be undertaken after 30 years. The last delimitation exercise was carried out in 76-77.

Sources said that the delimitation exercise was meant to take into account the changing migration pattern where rural population was moving towards urban centres and to ensure that the size of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies did not vary 10 to 15 per cent. If district as a unit as proposed by Mr Seelam is accepted, it would mean that the 80 per cent population will have 40 per cent seats while 20 per cent population will have 60 per cent of seats, a leader representing a national party remarked.

The Delimitation Commission's report did attract dissent notes but none of the states have spoken of taking district as a unit and not the state. If this note is implemented it would make the Commission infructuous and not factor in the rapid urbanisation taking place in the country. If this Commission is not taking into cognisance this discrepancy, than the country will have to wait for another 30 years to set right the things, the leader said warning that it would have far-reaching implications.

UNI MCN-KAS RP PM1648