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Akali Dal puts the brakes on Uttaranchal bill

The prospects of the Uttaranchal bill coming in the winter session of Parliament today ran into rough weather as the George Fernandes committee to settle the contentious issue of Udham Singh Nagar's inclusion in the proposed state failed to submit its report to the prime minister.

According to informed sources, Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee chief Gurucharan Singh Tohra yesterday approached the committee, headed by the defence minister, seeking at least eight more days for his party to provide more details about its claim for keeping Udham Singh Nagar out from the purview of the proposed hill state.

Notwithsanding this development, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madanlal Khurana said the bills seeking to accord statehood for Delhi and three separate states of Vananchal, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh would be taken up during the current session of Parliament. But he made it clear that these bills are "not on the government's priority list".

Sources said with the session ending on December 23, the committee would have little time to finalise its report, which calls for a careful analysis of facts, regarding Udham Singh Nagar.

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh are the other two members of the committee appointed by the prime minister. The committee was directed to submit its report by November 30.

The Uttaranchal bill had become controversial as the ruling coalition's ally, the Akali Dal, opposed the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed Uttarakhand region, demanding retention of it in UP itself.

After the submission of the Fernandes committee report, the bill passed by the UP assembly and sent to Centre can be redrafted if warranted and passed in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Congress asserted it was committed to the creation of the Jharkhand state and that it would ensure the passage of the Bihar State Re-organisation Bill, 1998, in the winter session of Parliament. This was disclosed by Jharkhand Regional Congress Committee president Shushila Kerketta in Ranchi today.

Kerketta, who represents the Khunti assembly constituency in the Bihar assembly, said a delegation from her committee would soon call on President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and press for the introduction of the bill seeking the creation of Jharkhand during the winter session itself. The Congress has already announced it would unanimously support the bill when it is tabled in Parliament, she said.

The JRCC chief said the committee would also ask the party high command to influence the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre to bring up the Jharkhand bill in this session if at all the BJP was committed towards development of this region.

The party also urged the Congress high command to reconsider its decision of extending support to the Rabri Devi government in Bihar that has opposed the creation of Jharkhand.

Kerketta said the party should immediately break its ties with the ruling RJD in the state and launch a mass movement for the revival of the party to check "communal and castiest" forces from gaining ground.

She said the committee would launch independent programmes for the realisation of Jharkhand at the earliest. She announced that the committee would be constituted within a month and said all party men fighting for the party's interest would be given a due place.

On Jharkhand, she said, "I am a daughter of this region and am ready to sacrifice myself for the cause of the over thirty million people living in this area."

UNI

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