Hyderabad: The TS government is upset over the Centre’s ‘no’ to delimitation of Assembly seats and insists that the number of seats has to be increased in the two Telugu states as per the AP Reorganisation Act.
Terming Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir’s interpretation and statement in Parliament that Assembly seats cannot be increased until a Constitutional amendment is brought in as “in correct,” TRS Deputy Floor leader in the Lok Sabha B. Vinod Kumar on Friday said that the AP Reorganisation Act was clear in this regard.
“There is no need for another Constitutional amendment. A simple Bill in the current session of Parliament to amend section 26 (1) of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 is enough,” he asserted.
Mr Kumar added, “This will pave the way for expeditious delimitation of seats. The government has no time to waste as the state faces Assembly elections in 2019. The process of delimitation is a time-consuming affair and work must begin immediately in order to be prepared for 2019.”
The AP Reorganisation Act promises increase in the number of Assembly seats in TS from 119 to 153 and in AP from 175 to 225.
“The Supreme Court ruled that amendments to the Constitution under Articles 3 and 4 are not ‘fettered’ or held back by other Constitutional Articles. The AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 is almost equal to an amendment of the Constitution in certain aspects. There is no need to make a separate Constitutional amendment to change the schedule of names of states, their area, and number of MP and MLA seats in those states,” Mr Kumar added.
