By IANS
New Delhi : The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government Thursday went ahead with the long awaited move recommending the notification of fresh delimitation of parliamentary and legislative assembly constituencies.
“The union cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to recommend to the president to notify the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters.
“This will bring the new delimitation orders issued by the Delimitation Commission into force and pave the way for election to the House of the People and the legislative assembly of each of the new territorial constituencies,” he said.
The cabinet also gave its assent to a new delimitation order of the Delimitation Commission under the Delimitation Act, 2002 in respect of 24 states and union territories to specify a date on which it shall be implemented.
The presidential notification will “supersede the (existing) Delimitation Order of 1976 and as a result the Representation of the People Act, 1950, will also amended accordingly,” the minister explained.
After this notification the general category seats in the Lok Sabha will come down from existing 402 to 392 and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe seats will go up correspondingly, with the total number in each house remaining unchanged.
Similarly, in the state assemblies, the Scheduled Caste seats will go up from 555 to 610 and Scheduled Tribe seats from 527 to 545.