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The Telangana Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution expressing serious concerns over the impending delimitation exercise, highlighting the lack of transparent consultations with key stakeholders.
The resolution, moved by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, called for a fair and inclusive approach in conducting the delimitation process, urging extensive consultations with state governments, political parties, and all concerned stakeholders. "This House expresses its deep concern on the manner in which the impending delimitation exercise is being planned, without any transparent consultations with the stakeholders," the resolution stated. Calling for a fair and inclusive approach, the resolution emphasized that any delimitation process must involve all state governments, political parties, and stakeholders to ensure just representation. "The House urges that any delimitation exercise should be carried out transparently and after extensive consultations with all State Governments, all political parties, and all stakeholders," the resolution asserted. A key contention raised was that states that have effectively implemented population control measures should not face a reduction in representation due to a lower population share. "The states which have effectively implemented the population control program pushed by the Centre, and consequently whose population share has come down, should not be penalized and hence, population should not be the sole yardstick for delimitation," it said. The resolution also noted that the intent behind the 42nd, 84th, and 87th constitutional amendments, which aimed at national population stabilization, has not yet been fully realized. As an alternative approach, it suggested that while keeping the freeze on the number of parliamentary seats, constituency boundaries should be redrawn to enhance representation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and women. "Hence, while continuing with the freeze on the number of Parliamentary seats, taking State as a unit, redrawing the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies can be taken up, duly augmenting the SC and ST seats as per the latest population and also providing for reservation for women," the resolution stated. Additionally, the House called for an increase in the number of seats in the Telangana State Legislative Assembly from 119 to 153, in line with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, and the latest census data. "Further, the House resolves that in order to strengthen the representative democracy, the number of seats in the State Assembly should be immediately increased from 119 to 153 pursuant to the A.P Reorganization Act, 2014 and as per the latest census. This House urges the Union Government to introduce necessary Constitutional amendments for this purpose," the resolution urged. (ANI)
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