Seek separate capital, Akalis tell Haryana

Chandigarh, April 5

The SAD today said it was unfortunate the Haryana Assembly was trying to confuse the issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab by passing resolutions instead of demanding a separate capital for the state.

Will create ill-will

All these issues have already been settled. Raking these up now will only result in ill-will between Punjab and Haryana. — Daljit Singh Cheema, SAD Leader

Reacting to the resolution passed by the Haryana Assembly, in which it asserted its right over Chandigarh, Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and transfer of Hindi-speaking areas from Punjab, SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said: “All these issues have already been settled. Raking these up now will only result in ill-will between Punjab and Haryana. The Haryana Assembly should have acted responsibly and put the injustice meted out to Punjab on record, besides urging the Centre to allocate funds if needed for establishment of a new capital. Doing anything else amounts to playing to the gallery.”

On the issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab, Cheema said: “It is a universally accepted norm that the parent state retains the capital. This was also accepted during the reorganisation of states in 1966. Chandigarh was retained as the capital of Punjab and Haryana only as an ad-hoc arrangement. This was reiterated by the Rajiv-Longowal accord, which even laid down a deadline of January 26, 1986, for transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab. The same was even ratified in Parliament so there can be no ambiguity on this issue at all.”