Chennai, Mar 22: The DMK-led Joint Action Committee meeting to ensure “fair delimitation” on Saturday urged the Centre to extend the freeze on Parliamentary constituencies, based on the 1971 Census population, by another 25 years and decided that MPs would submit a joint representation to press for demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the ongoing Parliamentary session.
A resolution adopted in the JAC meeting said that any delimitation exercise carried out by the union government to improve the “content and character” of democracy should be carried out transparently, enabling political parties of all the states, state governments and other stakeholders to deliberate, discuss and contribute.
“Given the fact that the legislative intent behind the 42nd, 84th and 87th Constitutional amendments was to protect / incentivise states which have implemented population control measures effectively and the goal of national population stabilisation has not yet been achieved, the freeze on Parliamentary constituencies based on 1971 Census Population, should be extended by another 25 years,” it said.
The states which have effectively implemented the population control programme and consequently whose population share has come down, should not be penalised and the Centre must enact necessary constitutional amendments for this purpose.
“The core committee consisting of Members of Parliament from the represented states will coordinate the parliamentary strategies to counter any attempts by the union government to undertake any delimitation exercise contrary to the principles mentioned above. The core committee of MPs shall submit a joint representation on the above lines to the Prime Minister of India during the ongoing Parliamentary session,” the resolution said.
The political parties from different states represented in the meeting will initiate efforts to bring appropriate legislative assembly resolutions in their respective states on the issue and communicate the same to the union government.
“The JAC will also undertake necessary efforts to disseminate information on the history and context of past delimitation exercises and the consequences of the proposed delimitation among the citizens of their respective States, through a coordinated public opinion mobilization strategy.”
The DMK, in the meanwhile, commenced its reach out exercise on delimitation by way of advertisements in the social media.
