CHANDIGARH: After Punjab and Haryana held special one-day Assembly sessions and staked their respective claims over Chandigarh, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation in a special house meeting on Thursday passed a resolution saying Chandigarh should remain a Union territory and an Assembly should be constituted here, amid a walkout by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillors.
The house also passed a resolution urging the Union government to ask both Punjab and Haryana to have their own capitals. At present, Chandigarh is the capital of both states.
Only the BJP councillors were present in the house when the resolution was passed as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillors staged a walkout. Out of the 35 councillors, the BJP has 13 and AAP 14, while the Congress has seven and SAD one. The AAP councillors staged a walkout as they said that the hike in water tariff was not been discussed, while the Congress councillors did the same for not discussing other issues of the city and the SAD councillor walked out, saying he was not being allowed to speak.
The resolution reads, "Keeping in view the sentiments of the residents of Chandigarh, its status of Union Territory should be maintained. A state legislative assembly should be constituted in Chandigarh so as to enable the residents to decide about the policies and future of the city themselves."
The resolution also stated the Centre should intervene and direct the Haryana and Punjab governments to develop their own independent capital cities. This resolution was read by BJP councilor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu in the house. The House also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for benefiting the employees of Chandigarh by implementing central service rules in the city and Shah for allotting projects worth around Rs 600 crore. "It benefited over 1 lakh UT employees in the city," said Sidhu.
Chandigarh BJP President Arun Sood, who is also a councillor, said, "We have passed this resolution in the house and also will ask the central government that an Assembly should be constituted in Chandigarh on the pattern of Pondicherry and Delhi. Every Chandigarhrian has to fight this battle as we will make it a people’s movement."
BJP councillor Harpreet Kaur Babla said that Chandigarh belongs to the people of the Union territory. "It is not a political agenda. It is the voice of the people of Chandigarh," she added.
Mayor of Chandigarh Sarabjit Kaur Dhillon who is from the BJP said, "Both Punjab and Haryana have called special sessions with their claims to Chandigarh. However, Chandigarh residents were not heard on what they wanted. So we called the meeting of the house today so that elected representatives were heard."
A letter signed by BJP councillors stated, "Neither the government of Punjab tried to know whether the residents of Chandigarh intend to go with the decision of Punjab government nor they tried to ask employees of the Union Territory whether the rules are in their favour or not and similarly such a resolution is going to passed in the Vidhan Sabha of the Haryana government."