Imphal, December 09: Continuing with its firm stand against the proposed Delimitation exercise on the basis of the contentious 2001 Census, the team of the All Political Parties led by Chief Minister O Ibobi today met CPI leaders, AB Bardhan and D Raja at Ajay Bhawan, CPI office at Delhi at 11.30 am as well as the general secretary of the CPI (M) Prakash Karat at the CPI (M) office at 12.30 pm.

Informing this in a statement issued to the press today evening, general secretary of the State unit NCP, K Saratkumar on behalf of the All Political Parties said that the delegation explained in detail the high growth rate of population in some hill districts and low growth rate in the valley districts of the State, as recorded in the Census report of 2001 .

Dubbing the Census report 2001 as 'table managed', the delegation appealed to the Delimitation Commission of India not to go ahead with the exercise on the basis of the contentious Census 2001.The statement further said that the Delimitation Commission of India had already completed and notified the process for the delimitation for 25 States, except for Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

(J & K is an exception as it has its own mechanisms) .

Bringing this background before the Left leaders, the delegation reasoned that since the delimitation process for 25 States had already been completed, the States of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh should be exempted from the purview of the Delimitation exercise by issuing an Ordinance at an early date.

The Left leaders were urged to extend their help and co-operation to the stand of all the political parties existing in the State, conveyed the statement.

The Delegation also suggested that if an Ordinance cannot be issued, then at least the status quo should be allowed to continue in Manipur.

After giving a patient hearing to the stand of the All Political Parties delegation, the Left leaders observed that the case of Manipur as well as the other three States of the North East need to be measured by different yard sticks.

The observation of the Left leaders came in the backdrop of the fact that while no objections were raised with respect to the other 25 States of India, objections were indeed raised from Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh against the Census report of 2001 .

The Left leaders therefore maintained that the appeal by the All Political Parties of Manipur for delinking the State from the Delimitation process deserved to be considered on a priority basis.

As a partner in the UPA, the Left leaders assured the delegation that from their side they would extend maximum support in delinking Manipur from the delimitation process, said the statement.

President of MPCC (I) Gaikhangam and Congress MLA Md Hellauddin who are part of the delegation were however not present amongst the team that met the Left leaders today, said the statement.

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