The Hindu : Bill on Statehood for Capital cleared

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003

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Bill on Statehood for Capital cleared

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 11. With polls to the Delhi Assembly just three months away, the Union Cabinet today gave its nod to a Bill to confer statehood on Delhi. The proposed Bill would be introduced during the current session of Parliament.

Briefing presspersons after the Cabinet meeting, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the Delhi Statehood Bill, 2003 would grant full statehood to the entire National Capital Territory with police and public order remaining under the purview of the Central Government.

She said that Articles 239-A (a) and 239-A (b) of the Constitution relating to Delhi's Union Territory status would be done away with. However, the Centre, under the provisions of the proposed Bill, would enjoy the powers to give directions to the State Government on issues on which differences may arise and the State Government would have to abide by these, the Minister said.

The move to get the Bill cleared by the Cabinet came a day after the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, assured a Bharatiya Janata Party rally here that it would be brought in the current session of Parliament itself.

Sources in the Government said the area of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), comprising Lutyen's Delhi, would continue to be under the Centre's purview. Even the All-India Services such as the IAS, the IPS and the Indian Forest Service personnel, belonging to the Union Territory cadre, would have their cadre control authority in the Union Home Ministry. However, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) would be brought under the purview of the Delhi Government.

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