EC awaits govt initiative in delimitation of Uttaranchal Assembly

DEHRA DUN, DEC 5: Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill has said that the Election Commission is ready to undertake delimitation of Uttara...

DEHRA DUN, DEC 5: Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill has said that the Election Commission is ready to undertake delimitation of Uttaranchal Assembly segments.

Gill, who was here to make preliminary inquiries about the delimitation work,said that the Commission would start the work as and when the Government nominates five legislators who will be members of the Uttaranchal Delimitation Commission.

Gill, who met Chief Minister Nityanand Swami and other senior officials of the state government, said that the delimitation work would be done on the basis of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2000 and the Constitution.

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The UP Reorganisation Bill, 2000 has given details about the delimitation of the Assembly constituencies for Uttaranchal state. Earlier, there were 22 Assembly segments in the Uttaranchal region of the mother state of Uttar Pradesh, which will be delimited to 70 Assembly seats. Gill said that out of the three newly-created states, delimitation work would only be undertaken in Uttaranchal. He said that the Commission was only awaiting the nomination of non-official members to start the work.

Gill added that the Commission has proposed installation of electronic voting machines in Uttaranchal and urged the Chief Minister to speed up work to issue photo identity cards to all voters.

A large number of social and political organisations also called upon Gill and submitted their memoranda regarding delimitation. Prof Gobind Sharma, secretary of the legal cell of the Samajwadi Party said that his party, being the main Opposition party, should be given representation in the delimitation commission. Gill told the delegation that this was the prerogative of the government. Prof Sharma also demanded that the geographic conditions be the basis of delimitation of the Assembly segments.

S.S. Pangti, president of the Jan Vikas Party, said that in the higherHimalayan region, population density is much less as compared tothat in the plains so the EC must ensure that people in the hills are not discriminated against in the process. Uttarakhand Mahila Manch activists also made a similar demand during their meeting with Gill.

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Election Commissioners will be visiting Dehra Dun shortly, the CEC told the various parties.

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