'SDF members non-serious on delimitation issue'

The Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee has charged the SDF members with not presenting the state's case effectively.

The Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee has charged associate members of the Delimitation Commission from Sikkim with "failing" to present the state's case in an "effective and convincing manner" at their meeting with the Commission in New Delhi on November 29.

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"The ruling SDF, to whom all the associate members belong, had never been serious with regard to raising the issue of Art 371F of the Constitution -- dealing with special provisions of the state of Sikkim -- vis-a-vis delimitation", SPCC vice-presidents KN Lepcha, SK Bardewa and Tseten Tashi Bhutia alleged in a press conference on Wednesday.

The SPCC leaders stressed that it was the duty of the SDF government to present concrete proposals before the Commission keeping in mind all the provisions of the Art 371F and that too in an effective and convincing manner.

The Congress leaders sided with the state BJP's demand that the state government make its stand clear over the issue. They also demanded that associate members should make public the proposals presented before the Commission on November 29 and also the points of difference with it.

They also suggested that an all-party delegation could go to New Delhi for presenting Sikkim's case jointly in the larger interest of the Sikkimese people.