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New state bills may not see the light of day

George Iype in New Delhi

The rout in the recent state assembly election has forced the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to go slow on the plan to introduce in Parliament the bills for creating the three new states of Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chhattisgarh.

Though Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madanlal Khurana claimed on Tuesday that the bills for carving out these new states will be introduced in the Lok Sabha next week, the Union Cabinet has to pass two crucial hurdles before approving them.

First, Defence Minister George Fernandes has to submit a report on the proposal to include Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal to the Cabinet this week itself.

Second, the Bihar assembly had rejected the Centre's proposal to create Vananchal. Though a state assembly decision is not binding on Parliament, the Cabinet will not want to rake up an issue with the Bihar government especially after the Bharatiya Janata Party's poor performance in the state election.

Pressurised by the Akali Dal, the government had in August set up a special committee under Fernandes's chairmanship to decide on the contentious issue of including Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal state.

Most political parties in Punjab led by the Akali Dal have opposed the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal. They argue that the yardstick of reorganising and creating new states on the basis of language, culture and social traditions does not apply in the case of Udham Singh Nagar district as its people have nothing in common with the hill people.

A section of senior BJP leaders have also advised Prime Minister Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani not to cede Udham Singh Nagar to Uttaranchal as it would ruin a stronghold of the party. They feel that any decision to merge the two will result in hostility to the BJP from the local populace.

The Fernandes committee was to have submitted its report to the Cabinet before the winter session of Parliament commenced. But home ministry sources said the committee is yet to finalise its report due to political reasons.

Officials say the changed political scenario after the state assembly election last month has forced the Vajpayee government and the BJP leadership into reconsidering their promise to create the new states.

The main problem faced by the government and the BJP concerns the proposed Chhattisgarh state. While there is political unanimity on the Chhattisgarh bill, especially after it was passed by the Madhya Pradesh assembly, the BJP leadership is not in a mood to carve out the state after all.

The BJP fared badly in the state poll, especially in the Chhattisgarh region. Having lost Madhya Pradesh to the Congress, the BJP leadership's main worry is whether the government should create yet another state which will be governed by the Congress.

Forced by this political compulsion, it is likely that the Vajpayee government will give an extension to the Fernandes committee in an effort to postpone the introduction of the state creation bills in Parliament, home ministry officials disclosed.

BJP sources said the government does not really want to introduce the bills in the winter session of Parliament, especially when Vajpayee is striving hard to keep his allies intact and fighting a battle with the Sangh Parivar leaders on a host of issues.

"The bills may be introduced in this Parliament session. But I don't think the government is keen to pass the state creation bills this year," a BJP MP told Rediff On The NeT.

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