BJP national executive member Manoranjan Kalia shot off letter to Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.

Requests the Governor of Punjab to act strictly according to Constitutional propriety to protect the interest, assets and faith of Punjab.

Jalandhar, November 15, 2024: Bharatiya Janata Party national executive member Manoranjan Kalia has shot off a letter to Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria. The letter reads as under: 

“The Governor of Punjab has been entrusted with the twin responsibilities  of administration. One is that of Constitutional head of Punjab and the other is Administrator of Chandigarh. Its genesis stands rooted in the award dated 29th January 1970 by the then Prime Minister of India  Late Smt. Indira Gandhi  in which Smt. Gandhi declared that Chandigarh would become a permanent  part of Punjab State as capital of Punjab, and that the state of Haryana would be granted 10 crores Rupees to build its new capital.  
 
It is worthwhile   to mention that The Punjab Reorganisation  Act was passed  by the Indian Parliament on 18th September 1966, separating territory from  the state of Punjab, most of which formed the new state of Haryana. Some was transferred to Himachal Pradesh, then a union territory; while Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, was made a temporary union territory  to serve as the provisional capital of both Punjab, the parent state & Haryana.

It has been an accepted principle that capital goes to  parent state when a state is to be divided on linguistic basis. The aforesaid dictum had been meticulously followed when the States were divided on the linguistic basis  after Independence but the reorganization of Punjab was an exception where two states Punjab, the parent state & Haryana were to share the capital of undivided Punjab in 60:40 ratio in the newly carved union territory called Chandigarh.
 
The said decision reverberated another agitation  demanding  Chandigarh to be the  sole capital of parent state, Punjab by whole Punjabis.
 
The Governor of Punjab being the Constitutional head of  state is the protectorate of interest  & assets of the state. The  hard earned peace of Punjab rests upon the delicate structure of  faith.  Every care should be taken  to maintain its delicate balance.          
 
The environmental clearance  of the  12 acres  of union territory  land by  the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India has raised many eyebrows in Punjab.
 
It is requested that the Governor  of Punjab must act  strictly according to Constitutional propriety to protect the interest,  assets and faith of Punjab.”