Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party leader KJ Alphons’ phone did not stop ringing on Wednesday. In a statement, Badal also asked the Centre not to “disturb” the time tested convention and practice of keeping the Governor of Punjab as the Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
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“I am happy that the prime minister has reposed faith in me to give such a position”.
“I will be joining next week as Administrator of the Union Territory”, he said. “Though I don’t know much about the city, but I have read a lot about it”, he had ceded.
On the other hand, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal said in a statement issued late evening yesterday, said that Punjab Congress chief Capt. Amarinder Singh was shedding crocodile’s tears on the issue of appointment of separate administrator for Chandigarh. While urging Modi to review the decision, he said it violates the premise under which the arrangement was originally made, which was that Chandigarh belongs to Punjab and has to be transferred to the state. He has reportedly visited the city once.
One of the UPSC toppers of 1979, Alphons is known for his Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demolition drive in the 1990s. He joined the BJP in 2011. Before that, Chandigarh was administered by a chief commissioner, a serving bureaucrat, who reported to the Union government.
Therefore, the decision to give the charge of Chandigarh to the Punjab governor was not owing to any kind of traditional hold that the state enjoyed over the Union territory – it was taken purely because of to particular circumstances and for administrative convenience.
Punjab’s demand for Chandigarh had been relegated to the back burner and is now talked about only in rhetoric. “Will he also tell why did he not resign as senior minister in the Punjab government when the Rajiv Gandhi government at the centre had betrayed Punjabis at the eleventh hour on the midnight of January 25-26, 1986”, Badal said. However, it had all the ingredients to be made an election issue, giving AAP and Congress the chance to paint the Akali Dal as inefficient and incapable of upholding the interests of the state, and cornering the ruling party into saving face by blocking the appointment.
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“You either make the central government, of which your party is an important constituent, rescind the move or you withdraw your daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the council of ministers”, he told Badal.
