The Hindu : Reservation of Mysore LS seat sought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 20, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Reservation of Mysore LS seat sought

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE April 19. The Delimitation Commission, headed by Justice Kuldeep Singh, has been urged to give the Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha seat to the general category and reserve the Mysore seat instead. The panel will visit the city shortly to elicit the opinion of the electorate on realigning the boundaries of the Lok Sabha and the Assembly constituencies.

In a suggestion to the commission, M. Sanaiah, Congress leader from Mysore, and K.P. Shanthamurthy, former MLA from Hanur in Chamarajanagar, said the Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha Constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes for several decades should be unreserved. Instead, the Mysore Lok Sabha Constituency should be reserved as it had more dalits than in most other districts.

They also sought reservation of the Gundlupet Assembly Constituency in Chamarajanagar District for the Scheduled Castes. The Heggadadevana Kote, the only reserved Assembly constituency in Mysore District since 1950, should be unreserved. The reservation should instead go to the Chamundeshwari Assembly Constituency. The Hunsur or Periyapatna Assembly constituency in Mysore should also be reserved. The Hunsur constituency had a larger population of Scheduled Castes than in any other Assembly segments in the district.

Mr. Sannaiah and Mr. Shanthamurthy also suggested rotation of reservation every five years. This would not only provide opportunities for general candidates to represent constituencies where they never had a chance to contest, but also create more political awareness among people. The existing reservation came into being in 1950, and continuing it for so long was against the principles of natural justice and the tenets of democracy.

The two leaders urged the commission to follow the rotation system for neighbouring Lok Sabha as well as Assembly constituencies. "For instance, the Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha Constituency and the Santhemarahalli and Kollegal Assembly constituencies in Chamarajanagar, H.D.Kote in Mysore and Malavalli in Mandya have been reserved for 50 years. Kollegal and Santhemarahalli are close to each other and hence this kind of reservation is not justifiable,'' they said.

The commission is expected to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the country by four. The number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes will remain the same. The commission has been entrusted with the task of redrawing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in the country to ensure parity in their population.

The delimitation exercise, the first in the past 25 years, has become necessary in view of the disparity in the size of the electorate in various constituencies on account of the uneven population growth. For instance, the Kanakapura Lok Sabha Constituency has more than 19 lakh voters, while the Mangalore constituency has less than 10 lakh. The Uttarahalli Assembly Constituency in Bangalore Rural District has more than 10 lakh voters, while the segments such as Chickpet and Shivajinagar have less than one lakh voters. Such disparities are said to be more acute in other parts of the country.

However, delimitation is not going to increase the number of Lok Sabha or Assembly seats as this has been frozen till 2025. "The commission will only redraw the boundaries of the constituencies depending on the population as per the 1991 Census figures,'' an official said. The commission is expected to complete the exercise before the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2004.

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