Bill To Merge UTs Of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, & Daman & Diu Passed By Lok Sabha [Read Bill]

The Bill introduced by the Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah proposes to merge the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which presently has only one district with the UT of Daman and Diu, which has two districts. The merged UT will be named as the "Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu".

During the discussion on the Bill, independent MP for Dadra and Nagar Haveli Mohanbhai Delkar said, "Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are two houses that this Bill will unite."

While supporting the Bill, BJP MP Lalubhai Patel demanded that Vidhan Sabha be established in the new UT, similar to the one in Pudducherry.

The Bill has been moved in furtherance of the "Minimum Government, Maximum Governance" policy. As per the Statement of Objects and Reasons annexed to the Bill, the two UTs share a lot in terms of administrative set up, history, language and culture and in such circumstances, maintaining two separate secretariats and parallel departments only burdened the State exchequer and wasted manpower.

"The Administrator, Secretaries, and Heads of certain departments functions in both the Union territories on alternate days affecting their availability to people and monitoring functioning of subordinate staff...Having two separate constitutional and administrative entities in both the Union territories leads to lot of duplicacy, inefficiency and wasteful expenditure. Further, this also causes unnecessary financial burden on the Government," the statement read.

If and when the Bill comes into force, the assets and liabilities of both the UTs will stand merged and will belong to the new territory. Further, it will be allocated two seats in the Lok Sabha. Furthermore, jurisdiction of the High Court of Bombay will continue to extend to the proposed UT.

The Bill aims to:

1. provide better delivery of services to the citizens of both the UTs by improving efficiency and reducing paper work;
2. reduce administrative expenditure;
3. bring uniformity in policies;
4. monitor schemes and projects; and
5. manage cadres of various employees.

The Bill will now be placed before the Rajya Sabha.

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