New Delhi: Parliament on May 8 approved the Constitution Amendment bill seeking to make 2001 census the basis for delimitation of constituencies of Lok Sabha and state Assemblies with the Rajya Sabha giving its assent to the measure.

Majority of the Rajya Sabha members wanted the exercise to be completed before the next Lok Sabha polls.

The Lok Sabha approved the Bill on May 6.

Moving the Constitution (96th Amendment) Bill 2003, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said the Delimitation Commission would continue with its work on the basis of the provisional figures of Census 2001, while the final figures were expected by September or October 2003.

Pranab Mukherjee (Cong) said urbanisation has changed the shape of Parliamentary and assembly constituencies and the Commission should endeavour to ensure that seats had equal number of voters as far as possible.

He demanded that Lok Sabha members should get adequate time to get acquainted with the re-shaped constituencies to enable them to prepare for the polls.

V Maitreyan of AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) wondered why it took the government to realise that 2001 Census should be the basis for delimitation and demanded that constituencies be reserved for scheduled castes and tribes on a rotational basis and a specific time- frame be fixed for the exercise.

Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena) demanded increase in number of seats and fixing a deadline for completion of the work.

PTI