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Badal rakes up Uttaranchal issue again

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today demanded the setting up of a boundary commission comprising a Supreme Court judge to determine if Udham Singh Nagar district should be included in the proposed Uttaranchal state.

A constitution amendment bill for the creation of the proposed state will be introduced in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.

The Akalis have been opposing the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the new state on the plea that it is a plains area having no geographical contiguity and cultural affinity with the hill people. Besides, a majority of the locals want to remain with Uttar Pradesh from which new state will be carved out, they contend.

Badal reiterated his party's 'principled and strong opposition' to the Centre's move to merge Udham Singh Nagar district with the new hill state .But at the same time, he clarified that his party supported the creation of the new state, respecting the wishes and aspirations of the hill people.

They differed only on the demarcation of the boundary of the new state, he clarified.

Badal is on the three-member high level committee headed by Defence Minister George Fernandes set up by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee last year to decide the fate of Udham Singh Nagar.

The committee, which reportedly met twice during the period, has not come out with any report on the issue.

Interestingly, the lone Akali cabinet minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was not present at the crucial cabinet meeting held on Saturday that cleared the proposal for reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh and decided to include Udham Singh Nagar in the new state.

Meanwhile, breakaway Akali leader and MP, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, strongly opposing the inclusion of the district into the new hill state said the ruling Akali Dal was not sincere in opposing it. The party was just shedding 'crocodile tears' and had allowed the Centre to take a decision against the will of a majority of locals there.

Tohra sought to remind Badal that he had committed at the his party's pac meeting in Chandigarh last year to recall the party's representative in the Vajpayee government if the latter chose to include Udham Singh Nagar in the new state.

UNI

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