Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated January 25, 1956: Merger of Bengal and Bihar

A surprise joint statement issued by the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Bihar proposing the merger of their two States has for the moment eclipsed the disturbances in different parts of the country. The Congress Working Committee has welcomed the declaration, and the two Chief Ministers and Prime Minister Nehru have appealed to the people of the two States to accept their leaders' decision and give a lead to the rest of the country. The two Chief Ministers have, however, cautioned that the people concerned must be consulted and after an atmosphere of voluntary reunion and cooperation has been created, details of the merger must be worked out. If a composite State could be formed for Bengal and Bihar, which had almost age-long differences, it would show a way out of the Bombay tangle where too a composite Maharashtra-Gujarat State could be formed. In the South too Madras and Travancore-Cochin could be merged. But the whole idea is so sudden and so new that leaders feel that time must elapse before it could gather general support.

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