Hyderabad: Reminding the Centre of the assurances made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, Telangana State Planning Board Vice Chairman B Vinod Kumar on Wednesday demanded that the Union government amend Section 26 of the Act to increase the Assembly seats in Telangana.

On Wednesday Vinod Kumar despatched a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in which he stated that a simple amendment to Section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act will suffice without any amendment to Article 170 of the Constitution for increasing the Assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“However, for reasons best known to the Government, the Union Home Ministry has not taken any steps in this regard,” Telangana State Planning Board Vice Chairman wrote in his letter.

Vinod Kumar was responding to a reply by Union Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai that increasing Assembly seats would be possible only after the next population Census was out. He objected to the Centre’s explanation and reasons on increasing the Assembly seats in the State in Upper House on Wednesday.

Interestingly, the Central Government while enacting the J&K Reorganisation Act had increased the Assembly seats from 107 to 114 without amending Article 170. Vinod Kumar reminded that the Central government had set up a Delimitation Commission in March 2020 and it had submitted its final report in May early this year.

“Unfortunately, in the case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, no such steps ( likeJ & K)were taken in the last eight years for political reasons,” Vinod said in his letter.

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