Imphal, August 06: Following the decision of the State Assembly not to accept the 2001 Census report, the all political party delegation which left for Delhi yesterday today met the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission of India and urged him not to carry out the delimitation exercise on the basis of the contentious Census 2001.Speaking to The Sangai Express, a well placed source said that the meeting was held with the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission, Kuldip Singh in the chair.

Led by the Chief Minister, the other delegates who were present in today's meeting included MPCC (I) president Gaikhangam, Phungzathang Tonsing, Ph Parijat, O Joy, Outer MP Mani Charenamei, Inner MP Dr T Meinya, CEO RR Rashmi and State Election Commission Secretary N Angou.

During the meeting the team from Manipur urged the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission not to carry out the delimitation exercise as the 2001 Census report is full of loop holes.

They also said that if the delimitation exercise is carried out it will have an adverse effect on the composition and distribution of he Assembly Constituencies.

At the moment 19 seats are reserved for ST, one for SC while 40 are in the valley areas.

Pointing out that the increase in the number of ACs have been stopped all over the country, the State team reasoned that despite this ban, increasing the seats of STs and SCs by taking away the ACs from the unreserved class lacks logic.

After giving them a patient hearing, Kuldip Singh asked the State delegates to submit a written report on why the delimitation exercise should not be taken up.

The Chief Minister and his men assured that the written report will be submitted soon.

The delimitation imbroglio came to the fore after the Supreme Court set aside an earlier ruling of a Division bench of the Gauhati High Court on July 14 this year and asked the Delimitation Commission to carry out the delimitation exercise by September 30 this year.

Earlier, the Assembly had resolved to constitute an expert committee to study the abnormal growth of population in some parts of the hill districts.

The report is to be submitted within three months time.

Accordingly an order was issued on August 4 which announced the constitution of the expert committee.

Principal Secretary (Home) PBO Warjri has been named as the Chairman of the Committee, while the members include, Bala Prasad, Chief Forest Conservator, MA Sattar, Commissioner Economics and Statistics Department, Kh Chittaranjan Joint Secretary (Home), O Biren, Director Economics and Statistics Department.

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