Other States - Uttaranchal   

Delimitation move challenged

DEHRA DUN: The Uttarakhand High Court in Naini Tal on Monday admitted a writ petition filed by Narain Singh Jantwal, president of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, seeking status quo over the 2001 delimitation orders.

Admitting the petition, the Bench comprising Chief Justice V. K. Gupta and Justice J. C. S. Rawat directed the Union Government and the Delimitation Commission to file their counter-affidavits within six weeks.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr Jantwal said that redefining of the constituencies as vetted by the Union Cabinet recently was uncalled for as Uttarakhand was a hill State with specific problems.

He stated that the new recommendations would put a large number of people in the thinly populated hill areas without easy access to the MLAs as six Assembly segments of the higher hills would disappear giving way to the creation of an equal number of Assembly segments in the densely populated Dehra Dun, Hardwar and parts of Naini Tal districts. Moreover, Uttarakhand had seen delimitation in the year 2001 when 22 Assembly segments were divided into 70 segments for electing the first Assembly of the State.

Besides the legal battle, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal which is a coalition partner in the Bharatiya Janata Party Government will register its protest by staging a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 25 when the Parliament session is on and outside the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha when the session begins here on March 3.

“We will continue to protest at all levels till the Centre exempts Uttarakhand from the new delimitation exercise as had been done in the case of four North- Eastern States and Jharkhand,” said Kashi Singh Airi and B. D. Raturi, both former presidents of the UKD.

Politics apart, bigger Assembly segments with lesser number of MLAs would mean lesser development funds for the area as development plans are now made with the Assembly segment and not the district as a unit, Ved Uniyal said.

Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri is said to have called for an all-party meeting to send an appropriate protest to the Centre.

Congress spokesperson Surendra Kumar said his party would support any view that the BJP arrives at after consultation with other parties.

According to political observers, several stalwarts from various parties will have to look for new seats after the proposed delimitation as the present ones would cease to exist.

Those likely to be affected are Chief Minister Bhuwan Chand Khanduri, Speaker Harbans Kapoor, Health Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, former Minister and Congress MLA Amrita Rawat and Dinesh Aggarwal of the Congress.

Besides, over a dozen Assembly segments will be affected with some areas going away or new areas coming in.

BJP State president Bachi Singh Rawat, who represents the Almora Lok Sabha seat for the third time in a row, will have to look for another seat as this constituency has been reserved.

Similarly the Hardwar reserved Parliamentary seat has been made general.

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