Guwahati, (Samajweekly) An Election Commission team headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar will be on a three-day visit to Assam from March 26-28 to hear the opinions of the stakeholders, political parties, civil societies, general public and officials on the ongoing delimitation exercise of the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Assam, an official said on Saturday.
According to officials, the Election Commission team, which also includes two Election Commissioners — Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, would study the ground reality and expectations of all concerned.
Assam Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nitin Khade said the Election Commission generally comes after the draft publication of the proposals for the delimitation exercise.
After the three-day visit from March 26, the Commission would again come after the publication of the draft proposal in newspapers.
“Thus, the stakeholders would get two opportunities to interact with the Election Commission to make the delimitation process more inclusive, participatory and transparent,” Khade told the media.
He said that all those stakeholders and common people who won’t be able to come and meet the Commission physically can send their suggestions and inputs through e-mail till April 5.
The Commission expects that all stakeholders will cooperate in the endeavour and would provide valuable suggestions so that the task of delimitation is completed timely, the CEO said.
In December last year, the Election Commission announced the delimitation exercise of assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Assam using the 2001 census figures.
Under the provisions of Delimitation Act, 1972, the last delimitation of constituencies in Assam was done on the basis of census figures, 1971 by the then Delimitation Commission in 1976.
On March 6, 2020, the Central government constituted the Commission for the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Jammu & Kashmir.
The delimitation exercise has been kept on hold in Assam since 2008.
The BJP manifesto for the assembly polls in 2021 in Assam had promised a delimitation exercise and “all steps and necessary safeguards” to protect the “political interests of the people”.
