Guwahati: The Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia his unhappy with the Election Comission of India(ECI) after getting no reply from them regarding delimitation process.
Speaking to reporters, Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said, “The Election Comision(EC) has come to Guwahati for discussion delimitation. We have met the EC full bench in New Delhi in January and gave them representation asking them some clarification about how it has been done. But till date, we have not received anything from them,”.
“Their was some irregularities in the delimitation process which was done by the Assam government like withdrawing district status to some areas and curtailing some parts and joining it with other district. The BTR is a sixth schedule area directly control by Centre through Governor. Even some districts of BTR has also been withdrawn. In this connection, the EC told us that they will meet all our queries but since January, 2023, we are waiting for their reply,” Saikia told reporters in Guwahati.
Saikia said, “We are still waiting for our answers. We have met them an discussed for an hour but now they are giving us 10-15 minutes which is not sufficient. We don’t think meeting them will not purposeful because we have not received any answers from them,”.
On the other hand, Assam Trinamool Congress has sent a letter to the Election Comission of India regarding the ongoing delimitation process.
“The delimitation exercise in Assam which was started in the year 2003-2004 was postponed in 2008 on the consensus arrived among the political parties that the delimitation exercise in Assam shall be taken only after completion of updating of NRC. Though the final updated NRC for Assam published on 31 August 2019 but the issue is still unresolved. Nearly names of 19 lakhs applicants have been dropped from the final list and till now as per NRC procedure they have not been given the reasons of rejection of their names, for which they have not yet been able to file appeal petition to review their cases for inclusion of their names in NRC,” Ripun Bora, president of Assam Trinamool Congress stated.
He said, “The Delimitation commission postponed the delimitation exercise in Assam in 2008 on the basis of the consensus arrived among the Political Parties. But it is very surprising that Election Commission of India all on a sudden started the delimitation exercise in Assam without any prior consultation with the political parties which was earlier postponed on the demand of political parties,”.
“The present delimitation exercise in Assam is started on the basis of the population census report of 2001. It is not understood why the latest population census report is not taken into consideration. The population census report of 2021 has not yet been published. If this delimitation exercise is taken out on the basis of latest population census report available (2011) it would have been more effective, because the present population data of the Legislative Assembly constituencies will help in properly adjusting the constituencies,” Bora stated.
(EOM)