The Hindu : Sheila leads march seeking Statehood Bill passage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila leads march seeking Statehood Bill passage

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3 . The ruling Congress legislators led by the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today marched down from the new Secretariat to Parliament Street demanding passage of the Delhi Statehood Bill during the current session of Parliament.

The "silent march" passed through JP Hospital, Ranjit Singh flyover, Tolstoy Marg before security forces at the Parliament Street police station stopped them. From here the Chief Minister along with all her Cabinet Ministers went to meet the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and submitted a memorandum to him.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Prem Singh, accompanied the Congress delegation, which also met the party president and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sonia Gandhi, in Parliament and apprised her of the developments on the Statehood issue.

"For overall development of the Capital, Statehood is the need of the hour,'' Ms. Dikshit said after her meeting with the Prime Minister. "We demand from the Prime Minister that the Statehood Bill be passed immediately,'' she said.

All the 46 Congress legislators except four -- Parvez Hashmi, Subhash Chopra, Surinder Kumar and Meera Bhardwaj - participated in the over an hour-long silent march. Mr. Chopra and Mr. Kumar are not in the country; Ms. Bhardwaj could not participate in the march on health grounds. The legislators wore black badges.

Referring to the multiplicity of authorities in the Capital, the memorandum said, this has resulted in fragmented decision-making and blurring the lines of authority, accountability and responsibility. The memorandum said that as early as September 11, 2002, the Delhi Assembly had passed a resolution for complete Statehood and forwarded it to the Union Government. On December 13, the Delhi Cabinet also approved the proposal for grant of Statehood for Delhi, encompassing the total area of the Capital and with full control on subjects in the State and the Concurrent list.

The recommendations had been conveyed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs on the provisions of the Constitution (102nd) Amendment Bill, 2003 and the State of Delhi Bill, 2003.

"In view of these facts and the fact that the present complexity in institutional situation in Delhi is hampering the development of the city, we the elected representatives urge that the Statehood Bill be passed in the current session of Parliament lest it lapses and the entire process would have to be re-visited when a new government is formed at the Centre,'' the memorandum said.

Later talking to the media, Ms. Dikshit accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union Government of being responsible of "non-passage'' of the Delhi Statehood Bill in the current session of Parliament. Alleging that the BJP was doing politics on the issue, Ms. Dikshit said the party was not interested in the overall development of the Capital.

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