Sukhbir Badal castigates Centre and AAP govt for colluding with each other to allot land in Chd to Haryana for Vidhan Sabha

Published on: 13 Jul 2023 at 06:01 PM

Published by: The fact news

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh, July 13

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday castigated both the central as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab for colluding with each other to allot land in the union territory for a separate Vidhan Sabha to Haryana to take political advantage in the Haryana assembly elections.

In a statement here, the SAD president said the decision was in continuation of an announcement made by union home minister Amit Shah that Haryana would be given land in the UT for a separate assembly building at the North Zonal Council meeting of States at Jaipur on July 9, 2022. “Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann did not protest against this announcement which has led to grave dilution of Punjab’s right over Chandigarh”.

Asserting that the chief minister has played a dubious role on this sensitive issue, Badal said “even when the proposal was first mooted by Haryana, Bhagwant Mann did not oppose it but instead also requested the centre to allot land to Punjab also for the same purpose. This emboldened the central government and has finally led to the formal allocation of ten acres of land to Haryana to construct a separate assembly”.

Terming the development as a gross injustice to Punjab, Badal said “Chandigarh is an inalienable part of Punjab. It was carved out by uprooting Punjabi-speaking villages of Kharar tehsil. Punjab’s right over Chandigarh was ratified by the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 and later by way of the Rajiv-Longowal accord which was ratified by parliament”. The SAD President said it was also an established precedent that whenever a State was divided the capital evolved to the parent State. “This decision is also against the spirit of federalism and so discriminatory towards Punjab”. He said in such a situation Haryana did not have any locus standi to demand land in the UT for a separate Vidhan Sabha and should construct its assembly building in its own State.

Badal said Punjabis were already hurt that the central government had failed to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab for decades. “Now Punjabis will justly feel further aggrieved that central government has decided to further dilute Punjab’s right over Chandigarh at the cost of Haryana. This is bound to vitiate the atmosphere in the State and could have dangerous repercussions by spoiling the peace in the border State”.

Telling the central government to reconsider its decision immediately, Badal said the SAD on its part was committed to opposing this insidious agenda in keeping with the sentiments of Punjabis who would never accept this decision. He said the SAD would take the issue to the people in case the decision was not withdrawn. “We will also expose the AAP government’s complicity in this decision as well as the chief minister’s failure to oppose it”.

Badal also detailed how the chief minister had a record of not protesting against the steady erosion of Punjab’s rights over Chandigarh be it creation of the UT cadre, implementation of central pay scales and dilution of the status of Punjabi language.