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UP house excludes Hardwar from proposed state

The Uttar Pradesh assembly today passed a resolution seeking amendments in the UP Reorganisation Bill, 1998, sent to it by President K R Narayanan with regard to the creation of the hill state of Uttaranchal.

The resolution was passed with 215 votes in favour and 74 against it.

The amendments sought by the state government in the original draft of the bill included the exclusion of Hardwar district from the proposed hill state.

The resolution was passed by raising of hands.

Congress members in the House supported the resolution while the Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India and the CPI-M voted against it.

The Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party and the Janata Dal walked out of the House before the voting in protest against the chief minister's reluctance to express his views on creation of Poorvanchal and carving up western UP as separate states.

The Bahujan Samaj Party was already abstaining from the House.

Two Samajwadi Party members from Uttaranchal, Munna Singh Chauhan and Amrish Singh, did not take part in the voting, though they were present in the House.

Earlier, during the day-long discussion on the resolution, the Samajwadi Party was opposed to the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed hill state.

Almost the entire Opposition charged the state government with making provisions for retaining the control of water resources and hydro-electric projects of the proposed state. They alleged that the new state would find it hard to survive due to these provisions.

Supporting the amendments proposed by himself, Chief Minister Kalyan Singh said the way had been paved for the creation of the hill state, several issues would be resolved after discussions between the two governments.

He said all the provisions had been made keeping in view the welfare of both the states and also the future. Both the neighbouring states could work in harmony, he asserted.

If anything contentious arose, the central government could settle the matter, he pointed out.

Singh criticised those Opposition members who were indulging in destructive criticism of the state government, he said the hill state was important strategically and no one should obstruct its creation.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:

UP seeks to retain Hardwar, but not Udham Singh Nagar

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