More employment for our politicians

Free Thinker *

On 28th Feb 2020 the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India issued a Gazette notification thereby allowing the process of delimitation to be completed in Manipur so as to readjust the division of the State into territorial constituencies for the purpose of election to the House of the People and to the State Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002.

So, it is high time to work out new constituencies for both our Lok Sabha and State Assembly. This will not be unreasonable on our part to go for an additional Lok Sabha seat and few more Assembly seats.

Redrawing and readjustment of the existing constituencies may be required for this exercise.Though the number shall not be allowed to be augmented till 2025, the process must be initiated in advance.

Normally the delimitation and allocation of Parliamentary and State Assembly Constituencies are to be conducted invoking Art 82,170,333 etc., and on the basis of the latest census. However the allocation of new constituencies are being frozen till 2025/26 by an Amendment of the Constitution.

In 2002 the Parliament enacted the Delimitation Act and a Delimitation Commission was set up to readjust the division of each State and Union Territory into territorial constituencies for the purpose of election to Lok Sabha and Assemblies on the basis of 2001 census.

The Delimitation Commission completed the delimitation exercise in 2008 in respect of all the States except for Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

The President of India exercising the power conferred by the same Delimitation Act 2002 deferred the delimitation exercise for these northeastern States citing reasons pertaining to National security, threat to National unity and integrity etc.

Now there is significant improvement in the security situation in these States including Manipur.There is also reduction in insurgency incidents making the situation conducive for carrying out the delimitation exercise which was deferred since 2002.

It appears that the circumstances that led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise in these four States including Manipur have ceased to exist and that the delimitation of the constituencies as envisaged under the Delimitation Act could be carried out now.

At present we have 2 Parliamentary Constituencies namely Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency and the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency. As expressed on earlier occasions too we are not happy about the names of our Parliamentary Constituencies. 'Outer' sounds like it is outside the State of Manipur and at the same time 'Inner' sounds like it is antagonistic to 'Outer'.

In this delimitation exercise we must also insist that these names be changed to Manipur Hills Constituency in lieu of the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constitution and in place of Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency it should be named as Manipur Valley Constituency.

Just in case if we get a third Parliamentary Constituency it may be named as Manipur Hill-Valley Constituency. Because the Assembly segments which are likely to be incorporated in this constituency could be from both the hills and the valley.

Whether it will be a reserved constituency or not shall be decided according to the demographic composition of the constituency. But we certainly hope that a new Parliamentary Constituency will be created.

While doing so we must take into account those voters who can exercise their franchise but can't contest election. Anyways let the competent authority decide as and when the new Parliamentary constituency is carved or created.

Moreover we may think of additional new Assembly constituencies considering the demographic growth and electoral composition .

For instance we may have constituencies like Kangla Keithel (Bazar), Jiribam Part 2, Mao, Koubru Leikha, Langol-Lamphel, Kwakta, Ukhrul proper, Lamka Central, Moreh Town and so on and so forth.

These are examples, not to be taken very seriously.

Three MPs in Lok Sabha and 70 MLAs in the State Assembly, it is not a bad idea Sirji.