Himachal pushes for 7.19% share in Chandigarh

Sukhu said that a Cabinet sub-committee has been formed to look into all aspects of the issue and file a report. The state government will decide its course of action after taking into consideration the findings and recommendations of the report, he said, added that they were also exploring options to recover the hill state’s power share arrears as well.

The Supreme Court in November 2011 granted a power share of 7.19 per cent to Himachal Pradesh in all Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) projects, he said, adding that state is receiving its share at present but arrears of 13,066 million units of power have not yet been released.

He has also demanded to raise the state’s power share in all BBMB projects in Himachal Pradesh as the state’s natural resources are being used to generate electricity. The chief minister said the current distribution from BBMB power projects allocates 51.8 per cent to Punjab, 37.51 per cent to Haryana and 7.19 per cent to Himachal Pradesh. The partner states should consider liberally enhancing the share for Himachal Pradesh as thousands of families were uprooted and thousands of hectares of land submerged for construction of these projects, Sukhu said.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had targeted Leader of Opposition (in Punjab Vidhan Sabha) Partap Singh Bajwa asking him to clarify party’s stand on the Sukhu government’s “claim” over Chandigarh.

Mann had said that the “stoic silence” of Bajwa over the issue was surprising. “Bajwa must clear the stand of his party over the false claim made by the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh,” said Mann. He said that it was shameful that these leaders change their stance on the interests of the state for their political benefits in other states.

“Chandigarh is, Chandigarh was and Chandigarh will always be an integral part of the state,” the Punjab chief minister said, adding that the state government is firmly committed to safeguard the interests of the state and its people.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab too had said that only “Punjab has all the rights on Chandigarh” that was built by depopulating its villages. “But unfortunately, during the sixties, the Congress government at the Centre cheated Punjab by giving parts of Chandigarh to Haryana,” AAP spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang had alleged.

In 1966, Haryana was carved out of Punjab, and Chandigarh was made the joint capital of the two states. The Central government made Chandigarh a union territory under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, and its administration came directly under the Centre.

With PTI