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Take decision on bifurcation of Panchkula MC in six months: HC directs Haryana government
A petition was filed by a councillor, Satinder Singh Tony, challenging the report which suggests that Panchkula MC be divided into a council for Pinjore and Kalka and corporation for Panchkula.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday asked Haryana government to “expeditiously” take a decision, within six months, on a report submitted by the then divisional commissioner, Ambala, favouring bifurcation of Panchkula municipal corporation (MC).
It was in January 19, 2018, that the HC had restrained the government from acting on the report. MC General House, led by Congress at the time, had resolved in favour of a combined MC even though the report had suggested otherwise.
A petition was filed by a councillor, Satinder Singh Tony, challenging the report which suggests that Panchkula MC be divided into a council for Pinjore and Kalka and corporation for Panchkula. The divisional commissioner’s report had been prepared on the demand of BJP legislators of Kalka and Panchkula, the petitioner said.
The corporation was formed in 2010 during the regime of Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government, by combing Panchkula, Pinjore and Kalka’s municipal bodies. But there was widespread discontent among residents of Pinjore and Kalka because of a geographical disconnect among the cities. The process to separate them began in November 2017.
Tony had argued that population was an important criteria to form or abolish a corporation and the last published figure in Indian census report was a vital document. However, the divisional commissioner had considered the decennial growth rate up to 2017.
The government had argued that there was geographical disconnectivity among Panchkula, Pinjore and Kalka. It argued that both Kalka and Pinjore can have councils as the current population of the towns, along with 28 villages, is nearly 1.28 lakh. Council status requires a population above 1 lakh. Panchkula MC can sustain on its own after excluding Pinjore and Kalka since it has a projected population of 3.31 lakh, along with 21 villages of its catchment.
Detailed orders on the petition are awaited.
