Delimitation exercise to begin soon
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 2: The delimitation committee of KHADC is awaiting the electoral rolls from the Election department before initiating the process of verification of various villages and localities that want to re-align with another constituency.
The delimitation committee has felt that a visit to these areas is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the ground reality and the sentiments of the people.
Speaking to The Shillong Times here on Tuesday, delimitation committee Chairman, Stralwell Kharsyiemlieh, said that the panel has completed the hearing.
However, there are some areas where verification must be conducted to understand its geography.
“We are also waiting for the latest electoral rolls from the Election department as there is a need to adjust the number of electorates in some of the constituencies since there is a vast difference,” Kharsyiemlieh, who is also the retired judge of district council court, said.
It may be mentioned that the Laban-Mawprem constituency, which is the smallest, only has 12,000 voters, while the Mawlai constituency, which is the largest, has over 55,000 voters.
Replying to a query, Kharsyiemlieh said that the committee will start the verification exercise of the villages and localities which had placed their request before the committee to align with another constituency once they receive the electoral rolls.
“It is only after verification with the electoral rolls we can finalise the realigning of the different villages and localities. We need to remind that the exercise is being carried due to the request which they have received from the people,” delimitation committee said.
According to him, the committee will need to be sure whether the request made by the various localities and villages is justified before preparing its report.
“We want the exercise to be an extensive one as mandated,” he said
Meanwhile, Kharsyiemlieh said that it will be difficult to say how much time that they are going to take since they are yet to receive the electoral rolls.
“We will try our best to complete the exercise at the earliest,” he assured.
Replying to a query, delimitation committee chairman said that the question of seeking extension does not arise since there is no timeline given to the committee to complete the exercise.
It may be recalled that the KHADC had submitted before the District Council Affairs department a proposal for the delimitation of the council constituencies.
The tenure of the current House will end on March 5.
KHADC Deputy CEM, Pynshngain N Syiem had stated that the goal is to rationalise the number of voters and that the suggestion is for the adjustment of huge constituencies like Mawlai and others, but the number of constituencies will stay the same.