NESFOD calls for conduct of delimitation in 4 NE states
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, August 11 2022: North East Students' Forum on Delimitation (NESFOD) has urged the Union government to implement the delimitation exercise in the four North East states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

In a release, NESFOD informed that it will organise a peaceful rally on August 12 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi from 10.30 am to raise their voices democratically to fight against the unequal representation and for justice.

NESFOD on Tuesday held a press conference at Press Club of India, New Delhi in connection with the Delimitation in the four NE states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, it informed.

The Forum claimed that the delimitation of Parliamentary and state assembly constituencies in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur have selectively been denied by the Government of India and the Election Commission of India (ECI) while delimitation exercises have been conducted and completed in the rest of the country, hence, violating fundamental rights guaranteed to all citizens under Article 14 of the Constitution.

It is already two decades since the Delimitation Act 2002 was amended, and yet, no delimitation exercises have been conducted in these four NE states neither by the central government nor by the ECI under the provisions of Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act 1950 (RP Act), it mentioned.

NESFOD noted that the delimitation process in the said four NE states was put on hold by the central government through the Presidential Ordinance notified on February 8, 2008 on the mere pretext of prevailing law and order situations.

However, the people of these four NE states waited patiently for another decade and eventually saw glimpses of hope and justice when the government rescinded its notification dated February 8, 2008 vide notification issued on February 20, 2020 and subsequently constituted the Delimitation Committee for these four NE states along with Jammu & Kashmir on March 6, 2020.Unfortunately, it was short lived as the government withdrew the February 20 notification with another notification dated March 3, 2021 without assigning any reason whatsoever.

The delimitation exercise in Jammu & Kashmir has since been completed yet the people of these four NE states nave been compelled to wait for justice till date for no fault of theirs, it decried.

NESFOD continued that since the withdrawal of the appointment of the then constituted Delimitation Commission, more than one and half year has passed but neither the centre nor the ECI have initiated any delimitation exercise in the four NE states.

The reasons cited by the authorities concerned for not carrying out the delimitation exercises in these four NE states is that of "non-conducive law and order situations".

However, the irony and fact of the matter is that, elections after elections have been conducted peacefully in the past two decades in these four NE states without any issue of law and order problems, it added.

The Forum further alleged that the lame excuse of non-conducive law & order situations cited by the authorities concerned for denying delimitation exercise in the four NE states is highly questionable and also irrational for the fact that law & order is a state subject and if the governments of these four NE states are incapable of maintaining peace in the state, it is a collapse of the state administrative machinery and the respective state governments should be placed under the President's rule.

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