Shiromani Akali Dal General Secretary and MP from Anandpur Sahib Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra demanded immediate transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab which was built as its capital and end injustice to the state.Participating in the discussion on grants for home ministry in the Lok Sabha late last evening, Prof. Chandumajra pointed out that at the time of re-organisation of the states on linguistic basis, the capital was retained with the parent states. This norm was violated in case of Punjab that amounted to blatant discrimination. He alleged that Chandigarh had been retained as joint capital of Punjab and Haryana as part of the conspiracy for the last 50 years. He called for ending this discrimination with Punjab by transferring this city to the state and granting financial assistance to Haryana to build new capital.
He said it was again part of the conspiracy to change the complexion of the city and adopt English as the official language in place of Punjabi. A separate UT cadre of employees had been created while the arrangement till its transfer was to have employees from the two states in Chandigarh administration in 60:40 ratio. Presently, only 20 per cent of the employees in UT were from Punjab cadre.The Akali leader demanded that the norm of 60:40 employees should be restored and Punjabi made the official language pending its transfer to Punjab.