Freeze on LS seats

Sir, - It is very disturbing to know that the move to bring in the 91st Constitutional Amendment Bill, which aims at freezing the number of Lok Sabha seats till 2026, has been put on hold (``Subrahmanyam committee report to be discussed next week'', TheHindu, Nov. 29).

The freeze, introduced through a Constitutional Amendment Act in 1977, expires this month. Unless the Constitutional Amendment is passed, the States in the South which have succeeded in controlling the population growth rate lose their strength, while the States in the North with higher population growth which have not done well in population stabilisation would be politically benefited. To overcome this anomaly, the government had planned to bring in the Amendment Bill wherein the delimitation process would be frozen till 2026. Being a Constitutional Amendment, it requires the approval of two thirds of the Lok Sabha members and half the Legislative Assemblies.

While the main Opposition party, the Congress, agrees in principle with the need to freeze the seats at the present level, it wants the overall number of seats in the Lok Sabha to be increased. It would be good if the two issues are treated separately. Since the freeze on delimitation expires this month, this may be taken up in the current session of Parliament. The question of increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha can be taken up separately.

K. Srinivasan,

New Delhi

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