Legislative Assembly in Chandigarh: Area too small for move, say experts

Chandigarh is one of the smallest Union Territories of the country, much smaller than Puducherry in terms of area. Hina Rohtaki talks to legal experts to find how having a legislative Assembly in Chandigarh seems like a impractical move.

Will there be a Chief Minister for 114 square kilometre area?
Puducherry as a Union Territory has an area of 479 square kilometre which is 4.20 times more than Chandigarh’s 114 square kilometres. The Union Territory of Puducherry itself comprises four districts — Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahé and Yanam — while Chandigarh as a UT itself is the size of a small district.
It means if a Vidhan Sabha is made in Chandigarh, there would be an MLA for every two sectors, who would be looking after the welfare of barely 15,000 people. Senior lawyer Ajay Jagga said, “It will be a mockery if there is a Chief Minister for just 114 square kilometre area.”

He added that all those keen on getting legislative assembly in Chandigarh should issue a white paper on record on how will it benefit the residents of the city.

“The basic yardstick for creation of a state is the size of an area. That’s why small units are governed by the Centre, and these places get a lot of financial privileges without taxation. Puducherry is the smallest UT in the country at the moment to have an Assembly and partial statehood. But Chandigarh is not even one fourth Puducherry’s size, at just 114 sq kms. Moreover, Puducherry, was actually made by merging four territories of former French India — Pondicherry, Karikal, Mahe and Yanaon — whereas Chandigarh was specially carved as UT by parliament under the Punjab Reorganization Act 1966. So any change in this has to have the approval of the Parliament,” he said.

Central funding will go
Ajay Jagga also stated that a civic corporation is constituted in Chandigarh in accordance with the Constitution of India. Whereas if a Assembly needs to be constituted, this will not dissolve the Corporation, but put additional burden on the residents to pay more taxes as Central funding will be stopped.

“Moreover, Chandigarh is too small in size areawise to bear or tolerate both an Assembly and a civic corporation, parallelly. The existence of both will crush the city and its residents under huge taxation, as the Central funding will go,” Jagga said.

Will there be an MLA for every two sectors?
Former Mayor, Subhash Chawla, too said that it was practically not possible to have a Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh.

“Mainly it is the area of a state or UT that is taken into consideration. We don’t qualify only in terms of area. Chandigarh is just as small as a district. There are wards which have only 10,000 votes . For example, if I have to go from Mohali to High Court, then I will barely cover 10 kilometres. One can just walk past for a few kilometres and get to Punjab from Chandigarh. Are we going to have one MLA in every sector or two sectors? This is practically not possible,” Chawla stated.

Chawla also cited the example of Mizoram which has a legislative Assembly, despite having a population of 10.91 lakh as per the 2011 census.

He said, “If we take the example of Mizoram, too, where the population is miniscule, but have you seen the area? The area is so vast there that in those belts one can afford to have such a structure. All these ideas are just being floated before the elections in order to divert attention from the actual development agendas.”

Chawla said that even if a voting is done at present, 70 per cent of people will say that they don’t even need a municipal corporation as it had turned into a “Taxation Corporation”, though the people were being deprived of even the most basic of facilities.

“I have seen Chandigarh all through these years and I know the people of this city well. The reason why people are unhappy is that they feel that ‘afsar shahi’ is dominant. That can be corrected by posting public friendly officers. We can strengthen the existing municipal corporation which is the only forum of public representatives by giving certain powers to thw Mayor. Otherwise, staying as a UT is advantegous for us. Having a Vidhan sabha will just increase the financial burden on the people,” he specified.

“There is no consideration of areas”
BJP Leader and former MP, Satya Pal Jain, said that “as far as he remembers, there is no consideration of area will making a Vidhan sabha.”

“Vidhan sabha can be constituted in any belt. To my knowledge there is no consideration of area in making a Vidhan sabha. Second, it is the prerogative of the Parliament. Let there be a consensus among all national political parties on this issue,” Jain said.

When asked if the area of Chandigarh was too small for a Vidhan sabha, he said, “It is enacted for the people only. May be they can consider the area of Mohali and Panchkula also along with Chandigarh. I am not saying this should be done. I am just saying they can consider it.”