In general, the NDA states and political parties are with the Government.
On similar, the opposition is favouring Women's Quota Bill but opposed to the Delimitation Exercise.
Congress leader and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy has given a smart 'escape' route in his open appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He says purely population-based expansion of Lok Sabha seats should be rejected.
As of now, the Govt move may increase the total numbers of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850.
Revanth Reddy says the southern states should not be "penalised for successful population control".
He proposed a "Hybrid Model" that rewards economic contribution and developmental performance.
The government wants to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850 by revising the Article 81.
It will move a constitution amendment bill for ensuring 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha from 2029.
Opposition parties have expressed their concerns about the proposed delimitation bill.
M K Stalin, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister says there will be "protests with full force" if anything was done to harm the interest of his state by ensuring more 'political power' for northern states.
Delimitation is governed by Articles 82 and 170. There are challenges to it due to frozen seat allocations since 1976.
Key issues include potential North-South political imbalances, where high-population northern states may gain more seats.
We have two parallel run schemes viz. the Adhaar Card and
NPR, one as voluntary and the other as compulsory, have led to debates at national levels and litigations.
Some experts suggest delinking the National Population Register (NPR) exercise from the Census due to its politically sensitive nature.
The Delimitation Commission of 2002 recommended considering the rotation principle for reservation of Scheduled Caste constituencies to address long-standing reservations.
The government may like to devise a scheme combining demographic and non-demographic attributes) so that that the group of losing states may be given other ways of 'protection'. In terms of governance, industrialisation and economic contributions, as suggested by Telangana CM, the southern and western states certainly come better off than the northern states.
But it is a complicated or complex exercise.
Another way is to equalise the number of Rajya Sabha seats across states as is the practice in many federal countries such as the US, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Equalising (or bringing rationale) in the number of Rajya Sabha seats across states could greatly compensate for the loss of representation in redistributing Lok Sabha seats.
This measure will, however, involve a series of amendments to the Constitution.
Smaller states like Mizoram and Nagaland have one Rajya Sabha seat. Now to 'equalise' their numbers with those in Uttar Pradesh would be also a complicated task.
As of now UP will see the rise of Lok Sabha seats from 80 to 140, Bihar's seats will rise from 40 to 73, Rajasthan from 25 to 48, and MP from 29 to 51. DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu's number of seats may go from 39 to 52 and West Bengal's 42 numbers may go up to 64.
 |
| Source : Hindustan Times |
The government is pushing delimitation as a structural reform needed before rolling out the 33 per cent quota for women. The government says the reservation for women can be fairly applied after constituencies are redrawn.
The Govt says that the 2011 population data will not be the sole deciding factor. There will be no disadvantage to southern states with lesser population, Home Minister Amit Shah has clearly stated more than once.
How Will Delimitation Be Cleared?
The proposed delimitation measure will be cleared as a Constitutional Amendment.
The bill must be cleared by Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha with a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.
The amendment will also need approval from at least half of the state legislatures - which BJP can easily manage.
 |
| Chanakya : The Inspiration |
The Modi Govt is now under attack for not attending to Delimitation Exercise and Women's Bill during the last 30 months since June 2024.
** Delimitation in the current format is very detrimental to the southern states, primarily in terms of proportional representation.
*** Congress and other opposition parties want the government to handle women's reservation bill and delimitation separately.
The new Bills are coming at a specially convened Parliament Session when the model code of conduct is in place in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment