The Manipur Tribals’ Forum for Delimitation (MTFD) in the interest of Hill tribals in Manipur wrote to the Prime Minister of India to ensure delimitation exercise to be carried out without delay and manipulation by the dominant valley based 14 political parties and other organisations in mid June who do not represent hill tribals nor are the collective voice of the Manipur state.
The petition advocates for diligent consideration of due constitutional process in the readjustment of seats both in State Legislative Assembly as well as House of the people based on 2001 census for equal representation to equal segments of the state.
Pointing out that the Third Delimitation Commission of 1973 and the Forth Delimitation Commission 2002 was deferred due to unfounded political move terming it a law and order situation which, MTFD fear could repeat in the absence of strong political will conceding to unlawful demands of sections of the Manipur society. MTFD warns that delay or deferment may trigger social unrest among tribals and could implicate a bigger national security risk.
Says tribal areas accounts for 92% geographical area and with 40% population has only 19 seats and the valley with 8% geographical area accounts for 40 seats in the 60 state Assembly seats.
Map of Assembly Constituencies of Manipur. Observe that 1-40 are valley ACs, whereas 41-60 are in the hills.
