Delimitation 'process on' for ADC polls
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 08 2022: With the 10 hill districts likely to go to Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections in the last week of October, a delimitation process is going on.

Even though no official notification has been issued yet, well placed sources informed that the ADC election may be held in the last week of October.

In the meantime, delimitation process has already been initiated in Ukhrul, Kamjong, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, Noney and Tamenglong.

Notably, the State Government announced the creation of seven new districts on December 8, 2016 .

The seven new districts included five in the hills and two in the valley.

Notably the UNC had stated it would oppose the ADC elections in the newly hill districts.

Of the five new hill districts, Kamjong was carved out of Ukhrul, Tengnoupal from Chandel, Pherzawl from Churachandpur, Noney from Tamenglong and Kangpokpi from Senapati.

Even though Kangpokpi district was carved out of Senapati, it already had a full fledged ADC with 26 Members.

Of the 10 hill districts, Senapati and Kangpokpi have 26 seats each.

As such, there is no need for delimitation in the two districts, said the sources.

However, the ADCs of Ukhrul, Kamjong, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, Noney and Tamenglong do not have 245 seats which should be elected through election.

As the new districts were carved out of the existing districts, there is a need for delimitation of ADC Constituencies in the new as well as old districts barring Senapati and Kangpokpi, said the sources.

In view of this necessity, a nine-member Sub-Committee for Delimitation of Constituencies of Autonomous District Councils has already commenced its intended work, informed the sources.

The sub-committee has already held a meeting delimitation in Ukhrul, Kamjong, Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, Noney and Tamenglong.

As Kamjong, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl and Noney happen to be smallest districts, they cannot have 26 ADC Members each (including nominees) .

However, none of the districts where delimitation is going on except Ukhrul fulfil the criteria to have 26 ADC Members each even though MLAs elected from this districts proposed much higher number of ADC Members.

If the number of ADC Members proposed by the MLAs is accepted, some of the ADC Constituency will have just 1000 voters, said the sources.

If the ADC election should be held between October 29 and 31, the Sub-Committee for Delimitation of Constituencies of Autonomous District Councils should finish their work by September 9 as the election notification should be issued 45 days in advance.

As such, the sub-committee has been working to finish their work by tomorrow and submit a report to the Government, the sources added.

Comment