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Badal fishes out old ace, says will challenge
Re-organisation Act
WSN
Network
Chandigarh:
Even as the pre-poll promise of removing Clause 5 protecting waters
outflow to other states caught Akali Dal-BJP government in a
cleftstick, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal went in for the big
kill, announcing his regime will challenge the controversial clause
of Punjab Re-organisation Act 1966 itself which enables Centre's
interference.
It is this Act which gives the Centre a handle to interfere. If
Badal carries out his threat, it will be his second such attempt to
challenge a specific section of the reorganisation act before the
Supreme Court to correct what is termed by a section of the people
as a “historical wrong” committed against the state.
Badal also said the legal validity of the Rajiv-Longowal accord will
be re-examined, especially as it stood violated by the then Congress
government at the centre.
If Badal challenges the reorganisation act, it will be his second
shot at this. In 1979, in his capacity as the Chief Minister, he had
challenged sections 78 to 80 of the Reorganisation Act and also the
award of river waters announced by Indira Gandhi in 1976. This
application was, however, withdrawn from the apex court in 1982 by
the Darbara Singh government.
Section 78 of the act says: “… all rights and liabilities of the
existing state of Punjab with respect to the Bhakra and Beas
projects may be fixed through an agreement by the states after
consultation with the central government. If no such agreement is
entered into within two years of the appointed day, the central
government may, by order, determine the purpose of the projects….”
In other words, the central government kept powers with itself to
decide the sharing of waters of Punjab and make allocation of the
same to other states.
Punjab’s opinion is that section 78 is wrongly added to the
reorganisation act of 1966.
4 April,
2007
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