Agartala, March 3: The draft delimitation for Tripura?s 60 Assembly constituencies has made major changes in the composition of the constituencies and raised the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes from seven to 10.

The recently released draft proposals, however, kept the total number of constituencies as well as the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes intact at 60 and 20 respectively.

According to the draft proposals, three general constituencies ? Barjala and Badharghat in West Tripura and Fatikroy in North Tripura ? have been notified as reserved for the Scheduled Castes in addition to the existing seven.

As many as six existing reserved and unreserved constituencies ? Kalyanpur, Shalgarah, Birganj, Salema, Kulai and Kadamtala located in four districts of the state ? have been abolished. These have been replaced by six new constituencies ? Suryamoni Nagar, Karbook, Amarpur, Ambassa, Karamcherra and Bagbasa.

Besides this, major changes have been made in the composition of the existing constituencies.

State election commissioner G.S.G. Ayengar, who announced the draft delimitation proposals, said chairman of the Delimitation Commission and former Supreme Court justice Kuldip Singh and election commissioner B.B. Tandon would pay a two-day visit to Tripura from April 7. The duo will conduct hearing on claims and objections from political parties and individuals.

?The hearing will be conducted at Agartala and Ambassa,? Ayengar said, adding that possibility of any major change in the draft proposals as a result of claims and objections was ?very slim?.

Senior Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) leader Nagendra Jamatya and Congress MLA Sudip Roy-Barman, who are permanent invitees to the Delimitation Commission, said they had tried to point out certain anomalies in the proposed delimitation, but were outnumbered by three CPM parliamentarians Khagen Das, Bajubon Reang and Motilal Sarkar.