Delimitation exercise over in State

VILLUPURAM: The exercise of redrawing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies has been completed in the State. The new boundaries will take effect after a Presidential notification.
The Delimitation Commission has heeded some of the objections expressed by voters during public hearings in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi and Chennai three months ago.
In the draft scheme, there was no Lok Sabha constituency called Mayiladuthurai. But, this now has been reversed and the nomenclature, Mayiladuthurai, has survived. The existing Triplicane Assembly constituency in Chennai was sought to be abolished, but the proposal has been dropped.

Under the new scheme, nearly all the wards now falling under the constituencies of Chepauk and Triplicane come under one Assembly constituency: Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni.
The Commission has accepted the suggestion of declaring the Kallakurichi Lok Sabha constituency a general seat as four out of the six Assembly constituencies coming under it are reserved for Scheduled Castes/Tribes.

However, it has not accepted some of the objections. For instance, there was criticism of the change of nomenclature of Nagercoil Lok Sabha constituency to Kanniyakumari.
The proposal to abolish Tirupattur Lok Sabha constituency was opposed stoutly.
In terms of distribution of reserved Lok Sabha constituencies, the northern belt has four (Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Villupuram and Chidambaram) with the central, western and southern regions accounting for one each (Mayiladuthurai, the Nilgiris and Tenkasi respectively).

Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts have been allotted two additional Assembly constituencies each, while Vellore, Krishnagiri, Coimbatore, Pudukottai and Virudhunagar districts will have one extra constituency each.
Thanjavur stands to lose two Assembly constituencies and Tiruvannamlai, Villupuram, Perambalur, Sivaganga, Theni, Ramanthapuram, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts one each.

Chennai and Coimbatore districts have the maximum of 16 Assembly constituencies each, followed by Vellore with 13; Kancheepuram, Villupuram and Salem 11 each and Tiruvallur, Erode, Madurai and Tirunelveli 10 each.

The Commission has achieved the objective of ensuring near uniform distribution of population among the constituencies. There are 44 SC reserved Assembly constituencies and two ST reserved Assembly constituencies (Yercaud in Salem and Senthamangalam in Namakkal).
The Commission published its draft proposals on April 5, 2007. It then held four public hearings.
The final order was passed on August 13.