State Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for politicising the issue raised by him regarding the need for fresh delimitation and increasing the number of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Uttarakhand.He said when the BJP was heading the State Government in 2007, a Congress delegation had requested the thenChief Minister to send the required proposal to the Centre to facilitate the demands but no such proposal was followed up.Addressing the mediapersons here at Congress Bhawan on Wednesday, Upadhyay said, “I had raised four issues, including the need for increasing electoral segments and the number of development blocks in the State. I had also sought that Uttarakhand be provided a peace bonus by the Centre since this border State has maintained peace and order in its region.”
Stating that the BJP was selectively targeting the issue of Assembly and lok Sabha seats while ignoring the other issues, the Congress leader said in the past when the UPA was in power at the Centre, a Congress delegation from Uttarakhand had met with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and then Union law Minister seeking an increase in the number of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies. They were advised that if the State had passed such a proposal in its Assembly and sends it to the Centre, the Centre would consider the demand.“We had also met then Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) who had assured us that the proposal would be submitted to the Centre. However, no such proposal was sent by the State to the Centre by the BJP-led State Government. Apart from an increase in the electoral segments, the number of development blocks should also be increased as this has remained unchanged since the days of undivided Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Responding to the BJP allegation that the Congress-led State Government had done nothing to create the four new districts for which Government orders had also been issued by the BJP-led State Government in the past, Upadhyay said the announcement of four new districts by the BJP was mainly a political move.“They had announced creation of four new districts mainly with an eye on the Assembly elections. The BJP-led Government did not make any provision of resource allocation to execute this decision which is why the creation of four new districts could not be facilitated,” he said.It may be recalled that Upadhyay had recently written to the CM, Assembly speaker, all MlAs and MPs eliciting their focus on the need for fresh delimitation to increase number of Assembly seats from 70 to 101, number of Parliamentary constituencies from five to 11, increasing number of development blocks and provision of peace bonus to Uttarakhand.The PCC chief claimed the Chief Minister had responded proactively to his request.