The Hindu : Other States / Uttaranchal News : Amend delimitation norms: Rawat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 19, 2005

Other States

Other States - Uttaranchal

Amend delimitation norms: Rawat

By Our Staff Correspondent

DEHRA DUN, FEB. 18. The Uttaranchal Pradesh Congress Committee president, Harish Rawat, has called upon the Centre to immediately amend the delimitation norms as the present criteria of carving out constituencies as per the population figures might lead to the very erosion of the representative character of Parliament.

Talking to pressmen, Mr Rawat said that his views on the delimitation issue had found much support from the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, as well as many State presidents of the party.

The worst hit by the present norms would be the people of the Himalayan region, the entire rural India and tribal regions from where a large number of people keep migrating to industrial centres and the southern States that implemented the family planning programme effectively. More MPs and MLAs from the densely populated urban or semi-urban areas would mean lesser representation of the less populated areas at the State and national levels. This would in turn lead to a lopsided planning process with elected leaders asking for more development in the developed areas while the rest of the country would slide back. "Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of swaraj for all and we must pave way for development of all regions and people", Mr Rawat said.

The State Congress unit will hold a rally in Delhi in April to ask the Centre to rename Uttaranchal as Uttarakhand which was the popularly accepted name since vedic times.

The State unit will organize a special felicitation function in Dehra Dun on March 2 when the Narain Dutt Tiwari Government completes three years, Mr Rawat stated.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News Update

Stories in this Section

Amend delimitation norms: Rawat

CPI(M) raises similar demand