Shillong, April 16: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has expressed the hope of having more seats for Meghalaya in the Parliament following the delimitation exercise as he welcomed the Women’s Reservation Bill tabled in the House.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Chief Minister cited the state’s population and geographic extent as a strong case for allotting more representation for Meghalaya in the Parliament.
“I feel that keeping in view the large population and the state’s geographic extent, Government of India and Delimitation Committee will positively look into this aspect,” he said.
“We are hopeful that our representation in Parliament will increase, but we have to wait and see,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister welcomed the tabling of Women’s Reservation Bill, terming it a “very welcome step” by the Centre.
“This has been a long pending demand, a long pending issue and this is something which should have been done a long time back but we must give credit to the Prime Minister for this bold step and bold decision that he has taken,” he added.
Asserting that the Bill would address a clear gap in representation, he said, “It will have a larger impact on the democratic representation…”
He stated that representation of women is not at the level it should be and said women’s representation at the top level will overall improve the society and women especially at large.
“We as a government and the National People’s Party completely support this decision,” he said.
“We are very happy with this decision and at every level of whatever is required will support it,” he assured.
“At the same time, I urge all political parties, all organizations across society must support a positive reform like this as it will be in the larger interest of the state and the country as a whole,” the Chief Minister said.
On implementation of the bill alongside delimitation, Sangma said both processes must be managed carefully.
Asked about the possibility of states losing seats, the Chief Minister said he did not expect a decrease.
“In fact, what I have been reading in the press was that the number of seats will increase from 500 to 800… so I expect there will not be a decrease in any state… There could be some states that will gain more than some other states…,” Sangma noted.
