1 NOVEMBER IS THE DAY PUNJAB WAS DIVIDED, NOT THE DAY CHANDIGARH WAS FOUNDED: SHIROMANI PUNJAB FORUM

Face2News/Chandigarh

The Shiromani Punjab Forum today congratulated the Chandigarh Police on receiving the President’s Police Colour on its 60th Raising Day, and thanked the Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, for presenting it in person. The Forum also expressed concern that the occasion was used to describe 1 November as “Chandigarh’s Foundation Day.”

In his address at the Police Lines, Sector 26, the Home Minister greeted the gathering on “Chandigarh’s foundation day,” and described 1 November 1966 as the day Chandigarh was made a Union Territory and the joint capital of both States.

KBS Sidhu, Convener of the Forum and former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, said: “The Chandigarh Police has earned this honour, and Punjab joins in congratulating it. But 1 November 1966 is the day the Punjab Reorganisation Act divided Punjab and placed its capital under the Centre ‘for the time being.’ The Governor of Punjab himself, speaking at the same function, called it the ‘बंटवारा’ (division) of the States, and recalled that Chandigarh’s foundation was laid in 1952.

The city was formally inaugurated as Punjab’s capital by President Dr Rajendra Prasad on 7 October 1953. That is its foundation day.”

KBS Sidhu recalled that the account of 1966 given today left out the rest of the record. In 1970 the Centre announced that Chandigarh would go to Punjab. Under the Rajiv–Longowal Accord, endorsed by Parliament, Chandigarh was to be transferred to Punjab on 26 January 1986. “That transfer has not happened in forty Republic Days. A temporary arrangement does not become permanent because an anniversary is celebrated,” KBS Sidhu said.

The Forum noted with regret that no leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Congress or the AAP Government of Punjab has placed Punjab’s position on record, either before the function or after it. “I ask for one sentence from each of them: that honouring the Chandigarh Police on 1 November does not alter Punjab’s claim to its capital,” KBS Sidhu said.

The Forum urged the Union Government to settle the unfinished business of 1966 through dialogue between Punjab and Haryana, and requested the UT Administration not to notify 1 November as Chandigarh’s Foundation Day.