Why Chandigarh still eludes Punjab

THE proposed Bill of the Central government to put Chandigarh under Article 240 of the Constitution so as to bring it on a par with the other union territories without legislatures has triggered condemnation from across the political class of the state. For Punjab-based political leaders, it is just not a move to reverse the change introduced in 1984 whereby the Punjab Governor was made the administrator of Chandigarh or merely a step to put the union territory under the Lieutenant Governor, as is the case elsewhere in the country. In Punjab, any move to alter Chandigarh's governance takes stakeholders back to the question as to why a city built as Punjab's capital has not been returned to it even decades after the 1966 reorganisation.