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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, July 12: For the residents of the proposed state of Uttaranchal, realization of their decades-long dream may still be a long way off as the issue gets increasingly caught in political cross-fire.
After the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), it was the turn of Congress and the Samajwadi Party to come out against the BJP-led Government’s plans to include the Udham Singh Nagar district in the proposed state.
Sensing an opportunity to embarrass the ruling coalition, the Congress, the country’s main Opposition party, has asked the SAD to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government if Udham Singh Nagar district was included in the proposed state of Uttaranchal. “In view of the overwhelming support this issue is getting from the people in Punjab and Udham Singh Nagar district, we will consider it seriously,” party general secretary Meira Kumar, in-charge of Punjab affairs, told reporters at Chandigarh today.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, while speaking to reporters at Lucknow this morning,also agreed that the USN disrict should not be included in the posed state as the culture of the people of the district was quite different from that of the inhabitants of the hill region.
