SHILLONG, March 24—Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Donkupar Roy today assured the House that the State government would spare no efforts to ensure that the proposal of the Constituency Delimitation Commission to change the boundaries of the Shillong and Tura parliamentary constituencies are not given effect to.
Describing the move of the Commission as “a very emotional issue”, for the majority Khasi tribe in the state, the Deputy Chief Minister, who is also incharge of elections, urged all members and all political parties to give a united stand in opposing the proposals of the Commission.” Dr Roy was answering to decision or cut motion on demand for grants in the Budget session of the Meghalaya Assembly today.
The Delimitation Commission has proposed to slice away seven Assembly constituencies in West Khasi Hills under Shillong Lok Sabha seat and tag it to Tura parliamentary seat in a bid to bring parity in the population size of the two parliamentary seats. The Shillong Lok Sabha seat with a voter size of over nine lakh comprise 36 Assembly constituencies in the districts of East and West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi and Jaintia Hills. Tura, the other Lok Sabha seat in the state has an electoral college of about 3 lakh voters and comprise 24 Assembly seats. The Deputy Chief Minister accepted the suggestion of the Opposition to convene an all-party meeting within the next few days to adopt a united stand to oppose the move of the Commission.
Earlier, raising the matter, BJP member T H Rangad warned of grave consequences if the proposals are implemented. Criticising the Commission, he observed, “The Commission simply went by population ignoring the differences in culture, language, geography, etc., while drawing up the proposals.
“Both the Khasis and Garos are fiercely protective of their respective identities and hence any move to change the geographical territories of the two major tribes would lead to serious implications” Rangad, who was former Home Minister, said. Several Opposition members also expressed concern at the ‘defective electoral rolls used in the recently-held Assembly elections in the State. “A good number of eligible voters were left out of the rolls while there were a lot of double entries,” Rangad said.
An unspecified number of eligible voters, both non-tribals and tribals, were not included in the rolls as Election Department officials insisted on production of ‘non-inclusion’ or deletion’ certificates from the original place of residence of the prospective voters.