Centre says no plan to table Chandigarh Bill, denies move to alter UT setup

The Union Home Ministry Sunday said that it has no intention to bring the proposed Bill on Chandigarh that intends to ldquosimplify the lawmakingrdquo process for the Centre in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament and asserted that the proposal doesnrsquot aim to change traditional arrangements between Chandigarh and Punjab and HaryanaThis comes a day after the Union Home Ministry proposed to include the Union Territory of Chandigarh under the ambit of Article 240 of the Constitution which empowers the president to make regulations for the UT and legislate directly This opens the door to an independent administrator in the UT of Chandigarh like when it had an independent chief secretary in the pastldquoThe proposal only to simplify the central governmentrsquos lawmaking process for the Union Territory of Chandigarh is still under consideration with the central government No final decision has been taken on this proposalrdquo a spokesperson of the ministry said allaying concerns raised on the matterThe ministry said the proposal in no way seeks to alter Chandigarhrsquos governance or administrative structure nor does it aim to change ldquotraditional arrangements between Chandigarh and the states of Punjab or Haryanardquo Chandigarh is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana Currently the Punjab governor serves as the Administrator of the UT of ChandigarhAam Aadmi Party AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal vehemently opposed the Centrersquos proposed move calling it a ldquodirect attackrdquo on Punjabrsquos identity and constitutional rights Shiromani Akali Dal SAD MP and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that with this move Punjab will lose its rights over ChandigarhldquoThe Shiromani Akali Dal strongly opposes the proposed Constitution 131st Amendment Bill With this amendment Chandigarh will be converted into a state and Punjab will completely lose its right over Chandigarhrdquo she said Reacting to the development Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said it is a grave injustice that the BJP government is ldquoconspiring to snatchrdquo Punjabrsquos capitalChandigarh was is and will always remain an integral part of the state Mann said in a statement Congress MLA Pargat Singh said that the Centrersquos latest endeavour aims to ldquocompletely snatchrdquo Chandigarh from Punjab and transform it into a separate UTWhat is Article 240Article 240 of the Constitution grants power to the president to make regulations for the peace progress and effective governance of the Union Territories of Andaman amp Nicobar Islands Lakshadweep Dadra amp Nagar Haveli and Daman amp Diu and PuducherryIt also states that any regulation so made may repeal or amend any Act made by Parliament or any other law which is for the time being applicable to the Union territory and when promulgated by the president shall have the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament which applies to that territoryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever