JAC demands 25-year freeze on Parliamentary seats

CHENNAI: The first meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of political parties of seven states affected by the impending delimitation exercise took place here on Saturday. The meeting resolved that a freeze on Parliamentary constituencies based on the 1971 population census be extended by another 25 years.

Barring Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC, which were among the invited parties that abstained from the meeting organised by the MK Stalin government, also resolved to make a joint representation in this regard through a core committee of their MPs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the ongoing Parliament session.

Expressing its "deep concern on the lack of transparency and clarity in the impending delimitation exercise without any consultation with various stakeholders", the JAC also decided that any delimitation exercise undertaken 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 to it.

Referring to the yet-to-be achieved national population stabilisation goal and legislative intent behind the 42nd, 84th and 87th Constitutional amendments to protect and incentivise states that have implemented population control measures effectively, the JAC said the freeze on Parliamentary constituencies based on 1971 Census Population should be extended by another 25 years.

Core MPs committee

The meeting also called for necessary Constitutional amendments to ensure that the States, which have effectively implemented the population control programme, and consequently whose population share declined, are not penalised. The meeting decided to constitute a Core Committee comprising MPs from the represented States to coordinate the parliamentary strategies to counter any attempts by the Centre to undertake any delimitation exercise contrary to its principles. The Core Committee of MPs would submit a Joint Representation on the above lines to PM Modi during the ongoing Parliamentary session, the participating parties resolved.

They also agreed upon making efforts to adopt resolutions in their respective Legislative Assemblies on the issue and communicate the same to the Union government. Additionally, the JAC concurred on disseminating 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 mobilisation strategy.