By IANS
New Delhi : In a move to formally approve the recasting of Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies at the earliest, the government is set to promulgate an ordinance empowering itself to notify the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission in batches.
The ordinance will empower the government to notify the Delimitation Commission result for the states, excluding five northeastern ones and Jharkhand, well-placed sources in the law ministry told IANS.
The sources explained that the original law, as per which the Delimitation Commission was constituted and assigned the task of redrawing constituencies on the basis of the 2001 census, provides that the results of the commission work will be notified in one go all over the country.
But with delimitation work still incomplete in four northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland as well as in Jharkhand, the government has decided to notify the Delimitation Commission results for the rest of the country for which it already has redrawn the constituencies.
While the work of redrawing constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur had been stalled temporarily by the Guwahati High Court on a petition alleging wrong enumeration of the population, the results of delimitation in Jharkhand has abnormally reduced the seats reserved for tribals.
But the government is under pressure from different quarters to notify the Delimitation Commission results at the earliest.
The Election Commission needs at least six months to revise the electoral rolls to be able to hold the next general elections in accordance with the recast constituencies, the sources added.
The proposed ordinance is likely to come up for approval before the cabinet either Thursday or next week, the sources added.