Assam: Political parties call for 12-hour bandh due to EC's Demilitation Draft Bill; details here

Demilitation Draft Bill: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has retained Diphu and Kokrajhar parliamentary seats reserved for ST and continued the Lakhimpur parliamentary seat as unreserved.

Several political parties and organisations have called for a 12-hour bandh in Barak Valley--Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi districts on Tuesday (June 27) in a protest against the proposed delimitation draft by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

On June 20, the ECI released a draft of the proposed delimitation for Assam's 126 assembly seats and 14 Lok Sabha seats. The EC draft on delimitation proposes to reserve 19 assemblies and two parliamentary seats for STs, and nine assemblies and one parliamentary seat for SCs.

It is reportedly said that three districts of Barack Valley (Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi) assembly seats would be reduced from 15 to 13. Besides, the name of a few constituencies will also be changed as per the proposal.

Apart from reducing the number of assembly seats in the Barak Valley, the ECI has made a slew of other proposals:

1. The ECI proposed that the number of assembly seats in the autonomous districts of West Karbi Anglong is increased by one and in Bodoland autonomous council areas by three (from 16 to 19).

2. It is reportedly said that there will be one unreserved assembly seat in Dhemaji district

3. The delimitation exercise was carried out on the basis of the 2001 census. The last delimitation was done in Assam in 1976.

4. The number of districts in the northeastern state has expanded from 10 to 31 since the last delimitation process, and there have been significant changes to the number of administrative entities at the development block and gram panchayat levels.