Chandigarh, Jan 8
Senior Akali leader Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday warned the Union government against going ahead with the reported decision to re-designate the post of Advisor to Punjab Governor-cum-Chandigarh Administrator as the Chief Secretary.
He said the decision “comes with the active collusion of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab and its Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.”
“Mann had formally acknowledged Haryana’s right over Chandigarh by agreeing to setting up of the Haryana Legislative Assembly in Chandigarh,” Badal said in a statement.
“He had the same anti-Punjab stand on Panjab University and the PGI,” the Akali leader said and added that the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab is a settled issue, committed by two Prime Ministers and endorsed by the Union Cabinet as well as by both Houses of Parliament following the Memorandum of Settlement on Punjab in July 1985.
“Even the issue of the Hindi speaking areas to be transferred to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh stands settled beyond any possible dispute or doubt. Two commissions set up by the Union government had categorically ruled in favour of Punjab, saying that there was no Hindi speaking area in the state that could be transferred to Haryana,” said Badal.