INDIA: A government commission said Saturday it had failed to resolve a boundary dispute, threatening implementation of a key clause of the accord, Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi made to restore peace in Punjab state, news reports said.
Commission members said they had not been able to decide which Hindi-Speaking villages in Punjab should be incorporated into neighboring Haryana state, which is predominantly Hindu, according to the United News of India; Sikhs form a majority in the Punjab.
Under an agreement Gandhi signed last July with Sikh politicians, Haryana was to receive the villages as compensation for losing Chandigargh as its capital, Chandigargh, now a federally administered territory and capital of both sates, was to become part of Punjab.
The transfers were to have gone into effect Sunday, but UNI quot unidentified sources as saying they would be delayed.
The federal government has promised to finance construction of a new capital for Haryana.
Despite the commission’s failure, UNI quoted unidentified governments source as saying Gandhi remained “fully commit ted” to the accord and the government was working out a “fresh strategy” on implementing it.
The pact Gandhi signed with ‘Sikh moderates was intended to meet their demands’ for greater autonomy and end four years of violence in which more than 10,000 people perished.
He appointed the commission headed by retired Supreme Court Judge K.K. Mathew to identify Hindi-speaking border villages in Punjab, The panel said Saturday it found 83 such villages, but there was no way 10 redraw the boundary without including villages where most inhabitants speak Punjabi.
The commission cannot determine any specific Hindi-speaking areas in Punjab which should go to Haryana in lieu of Chandigargh,” the report said.
Haryana leaders have laid claim to 408 villages in the cotton-rich Fazilka and Abohar areas near the Pakistan border, but Punjab of ficials say they are not negotiable.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1986
