Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala may have to eat his words soon.Minutes before announcing the creation of a district during a Gandhi Jayanti programme in Nuh, he had said the state does not require any approval for creating a district. ‘‘I don’t think any such approval is needed,’’ he had said.But now, Chautala’s pre-poll promise of Satyamev Puram is in jeopardy with the Delimitation Commission asking Haryana not to create the new district till the Commission finishes its task.Commission Chairman Justice Kuldip Singh said: ‘‘We have informed the Haryana government that we cannot permit them to go ahead with this.The delimitation exercise in Haryana is at a very advanced stage and we hope to complete it in a couple of months. The creation of a new district at this stage would adversely affect our task.’’Justice Singh added that the Commission learnt of the proposed district only through media reports. ‘‘We immediately wrote to the Haryana Chief Secretary, asking the government not to make these changes when our work was at such a crucial stage,’’ he said.‘‘The Chief Secretary replied, seeking permission, which we refused. The state now has no option but to abide by our direction,’’ Singh said.‘‘When we began our work around 20 months ago, a directive was issued to all states, asking them not to make any administrative changes. At that time, we had based our delimitation exercise on the 1991 Census figures since the 2001 Census had not been published,’’ said Singh. However, the Commission had to stop it’s exercise last year, following a Parliament amendment asking it to carry out its work on the basis of 2001 Census.
