The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, August 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Cabinet clears statehood for Delhi
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 11
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre today threw another election bait at the people of the Capital by clearing the proposal for granting full statehood for Delhi.

With the Assembly elections in Delhi round the corner, the BJP seems to have turned to offering the full statehood sop for the residents in a bid to break the Congress stronghold. The announcement for the full statehood is important specially as the BJP in Delhi has no election issues to fight the Congress.

The decision to grant full statehood, with the exception of law and order and public security, was taken by the Union Cabinet at its meeting this morning. The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, decided to introduce the Delhi State Bill, 2003 in the current Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters later that under the proposed Delhi Statehood Bill, 2003, the entire National Capital Territory would be granted full statehood with police and public order remaining under the Centre’s purview.

Articles 239-A (A) and 239-A (B) of the Constitution say that Delhi’s union territory status, would be done away with, she said. The Centre, under the proposed Bill, would have the powers to give directions to the state government on issues on which differences may crop up and the state government would have to abide by these directives, Ms Swaraj said.

She however, refused to give details of the proposal as the Parliament session was under way. She said propriety demanded that the matter be discussed there before he details were made public.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved a legislation to amend the Criminal Procedure Code to prevent witnesses from turning hostile. Ms Swaraj said a Bill to amend the CrPC Act would also be introduced during the current session of Parliament.

“Such witnesses who turn hostile should also face punishment.... This is one of the highlights of the proposed Bill,” Ms Swaraj said.

Another highlight of the legislation would be to make it compulsory for all statements by witnesses to be recorded in front of a magistrate instead of the police as of now.

The government also approved the setting of a Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine the proposal for reservation of jobs for economically backward among upper castes in the light of the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Centre was ready to introduce a Bill in Parliament if the move was supported by the Opposition.

The GoM, headed by Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani, will have Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Social Justice Minister Satyanarain Jatiya as its members, Ms Swaraj said.

Since the issue would require an amendment to the Constitution, other parties would be consulted for their support by the GoM, she said.