Lieut. General Jagjit Singh Aurora said in a statement that the Prime Minister continues to mislead everyone on the issue of the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab.
By no stretch of the imagination, he says, could the award of the Verkatramiah Commission giving 70,000 acres of land belonging to Punjab to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh regardless of the fact whether it was Hindi speaking and contiguous or not be considered to be in accordance with clause 7.2 of the accord. The Centre had betrayed its sincerity in not appointing the commission under clause 7.4 of the accord which required readjustment of the boundary between Punjab and Haryana based on the principle of linguistic affinity and geographical contiguity.
The C.P.M. member Harkishan Singh Surjeet also criticized Rajiv Gandhi’s remark that the Center could not transfer Chandigarh to Punjab because of the Akali Government’s failure to transfer 70,000 acres of land to Haryana as recommended by the Venketaramia Commission. Says Surjeet
“Mr. Gandhi had apparently forgotten that under the accord signed by him with Sant Longowal only Hindi speaking villages contiguous to Haryana could be transferred. Both the Mathew Commission and the Venkataramiah Commission had failed to identify these village”.
“One can understand Mr. Gandhi’s concern for the Haryana elections but he should not at the same time create an impression that the accord signed by him has no meaning,” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 6, 1987
