New Delhi, Aug. 7: Faced with stiff opposition, the Delimitation Commission has decided to put a halt to its plans of changing the boundaries of Assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh. The matter, which has the potential to snowball into a crisis, will now be referred to the Union law and justice ministry for a final decision.

The decision followed a meeting, on Friday, when members of both the BJP and the Congress told the commission in no uncertain terms that the plans to alter the existing Assembly seats in the hill state would not be accepted.

?Arunachal Pradesh occupies a strategic location and due consideration will be given to the people?s sentiments. We will refer the case to the concerned ministry since we can?t do anything about the census,? chairman of the commission, Justice (retd) Kuldeep Singh told The Telegraph.

The rationale behind the delimitation process, an all-India exercise, is to ensure a uniform distribution of the population over all legislative constituencies in a state. The latest census report serves as the basis to alter existing boundaries. The total number of seats remain unchanged.

At Friday?s meeting, the representatives from Arunachal complained that the 2001 census in the state was flawed as it took into account a huge floating population. A letter submitted to the commission said as many as 3,92,810 people who were not ?indigenous? were included in the total population of 10,97,968.

The six Arunachal representatives were unanimous that if the delimitation process went ahead in the state, many tribes would lose their representation in the Assembly leading to law and order problems.

Incidentally, most of the northeastern states had expressed reservations about the delimitation, but the Commission decided to go ahead with its programme of redistribution of seats. Arunachal Pradesh?s case has been treated differently considering that it is yet to be accepted by China as Indian territory and an agitation there could have far reaching implications.

According to the changes suggested, the disturbed district of Tirap would have two seats less than its existing seven while the adjacent Changlang and Lohit would each gain two seats over their existing five seats each. One seat each would be deducted from Tawang and West Siang constituencies. East Kameng and Kurukumey would lose two seats. Papum Pare district, where the capital Itanagar is located, would gain the most with three additional seats to its existing three.

?If the exercise is allowed to take place, a huge chunk of the border areas would be under-represented which may go against the security of the state and the country,? said Arunachal Pradesh (West) MP Khiren Rijiju.

The leaders recommended that the exercise should be carried out by taking only the indigenous population into consideration. Alternatively, they said, it should be carried out simultaneously with the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, possible only after 2026 according to a government decision.

There are three stages in the delimitation exercise. The release of the working paper is followed by the draft order when the commission would receive representations from the states concerned and hold public hearings and discussions with the state election commission. The last stage is the final order that has been issued only for Mizoram and Tripura among the northeastern states.