Increase number of Assembly seats to 153, Telangana tells Centre

Hyderabad, Feb 19: Telangana government has reiterated its request to the Centre for enhancement of number of Legislative Assembly seats in the State from 119 to 153.

Telangana Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma has written a letter to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, to this effect.

"As the new State of Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014, and in order to strengthen the Democratic Institutions and to provide Social Justice to the people of Telangana, the Government of India may initiate action to place the matter before the Election Commission of India for increase of seats in Legislative Assembly of Telangana State from 119 to 153 as envisaged in the AP Re-Organisation Act, 2014 as expeditiously as possible," the letter said.

In support of his request, the Chief Secretary quoted relevant provision under section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, regarding delimitation of constituencies.

It has been provided in the section 26(1) that subject to the provisions contained in Article 170 of the Constitution and without prejudice to section 15 of this Act, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the successor States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased from 175 and 119 to 225 and 153, respectively, he said.

Delimitation of the constituencies may be determined by the Election Commission, the chief secretary added.

PTI