Former minister moves HC to challenge delimitation

Kendrapada, Feb 6 (UNI) Former Orissa Higher Education Minister and senior Congress leader Bhagabat Prasad Mohanty has moved the High Court challenging the decision of the Delimitation Commission to convert Kendrapada Assembly segment, in a Scheduled Caste reserve seat.

Mr Mohanty moved the High Court as he failed to get justice from the state's chief Delimitation Commissioner and Delimitation Commission of India on his plea.

The Congress leader said Kendrapada was redefined as a Scheduled Caste seat instead of Aul Assembly segment where the population of SC was higher than Kendrapara Assembly segment.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Mohanty alleged that the Delimitation Commission had made mistake while delimitating the Assembly segments and reserving one of the five Assembly segments for Scheduled Caste.

The Congress leader pointed out that as per guidelines one Assembly segment will remain reserved out of five Assembly segments in the district.

He said the district has 13.02 lakh voters and as per the proposed list of the Commission, Patkura Assembly segment has 56992 Scheduled Castes people, whereas 58,188 Scheduled Caste people were residing under Kendrapada Assembly constituency and 57,346 under Aul Assembly segment.

Similarly 481,88 people of Scheduled Caste reside in Rajnagar Assembly constituency and 46,472 under Mahakalpada Assembly segment.

But the Commission during its final draft proposal preparation had merged the three GPs of Marshaghai block under Kendrapada Assembly segment at the newly formed Mahakalapada Assembly constituency.

As a result, the population of Scheduled Caste in Kendrapada Assembly constituency was reduced to 55,114. However, as per the final report of the draft prepared by the Delimitation Commission , the highest number of Scheduled Caste population were found in Aul Assembly segment in the district.

According to the guidelines, Aul Assembly segment would have been described as reserved for Scheduled Caste.

Mr Mohanty said the Delimitation Commission had allegedly tampered the guidelines by reserving Kendrapada Assembly segment for Scheduled Caste.

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