The number of Assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand should be increased from 70 to 101 considering the geographical features of the State. In addition to this, the number of lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand should also be increased from five to 11, said Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay.He was addressing the media at the Congress Bhawan here on Sunday.
Upadhyay said he had written a letter to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, five lok Sabha MPs, i.e. Maj Gen BC Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Ajay Tamta and Mala Rajya laxmi Shah and three Rajya Sabha members i.e. Tarun Vijay, Rajbabbar and Mahendra Singh Mahra from Uttarakhand apart from all MlAs eliciting their focus on four issues in the interests of the State. Seeking that they unanimously approve the proposal on these issues and send it to the Centre, Upadhyay said Uttarakhand had maintained an atmosphere of peace and security for which it should be given ‘peace bonus’ by the Centre.
He said, “The number of Vidhan Sabha seats should be increased from 70 to 101 while the lok Sabha constituencies should be increased from five to 11. The difficult geographical terrain should be made the basis for delimitation of assembly seats apart from which delimitation should be undertaken afresh to increase the number of development blocks in Uttarakhand.
The present Assembly seated limitation done on basis of 1972 population was not proper as tough geographical conditions of Uttarakhand were not taken into consideration at that time.
Assembly seats in the mountainous parts of the State will decrease further after 2027 delimitation which would be detrimental to the very basis behind its formation aimed at ensuring development in the mountains,” he added.
The PCC chief said most States in the middle Himalayan region have been provided special protection under the constitution. “However, when Uttarakhand was created in 2000, the special features of the State were not given attention in the Parliament. At that time, especially the BJP put the State in various problems, the solutions to which are still being searched for more than a decade after State formation. Uttarakhand has faced bias in issues like its permanent State capital, the right of Uttar Pradesh on Uttarakhand’s estates, demarcation of borders, loan repayment and division of government workers among other issues,” said Upadhyay. He has appealed all the elected MPs from Uttarakhand to pressurise the Centre to take a decision favourable to the State on these issues.