Constituencies may be frozen till 2011

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC 5. A political consensus appears to have emerged that for the moment the total number of Lok Sabha constituencies should be frozen not till 2026, as earlier proposed by the Government, but till 2011.

A decision was taken today at a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha after a thorough discussion on the issue. It seems that the Congress, represented by Mr. Madhavrao Scindia, had some reservations. He was reported to have suggested that perhaps the total number of constituencies in all States could be increased without disturbing the present proportion, to make the constituencies more manageable.

However, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, managed to clinch the issue by suggesting a compromise, that the total number of constituencies be frozen till 2011, that is till the next Census, rather than till 2026 as was proposed earlier.

The 91st Constitution Amendment Bill which will make this possible is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 12. It is reported that Mr. Scindia said he would consult his party before giving the Congress' final approval to Mr. Mahajan's proposal.

Mr. Arun Jaitley, Minister for Law, was also present at the meeting chaired by the Speaker, Mr G.M.C.Balayogi. He explained the urgency to put this legislation in place - after Parliament approves the Bill it will have to be ratified by at least 50 per cent of the States, the existing law freezing the number of seats till 2000 would have to be repealed, and finally a delimitation commission set up to redraw the boundaries of constituencies within each State.

The question of increasing the number of Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe seats in proportion to their numbers according to the new Census could also be looked at.

Others present at the meeting were the Deputy Speaker, Mr P.M.Sayeed, Mr. Roopchand Pal (CPI-M), Mr. Yerran Naidu (TDP), Mr. Vaiko (MDMK), Mr. P.H. Pandian (AIADMK), Mr. Akhilesh Singh (SP), Mr. Sudip Bandopadhyaya (Trinamool) and Mr. Anand Geethe (Shiv Sena).

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