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Uttaranchal bill will be introduced in Budget session

Union Home Minister L K Advani yesterday said a bill envisaging the formation of a separate state of Uttaranchal will be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament in May.

Talking to newspersons at the Jolly Grant aerodrome in Dehradun on his way to Haridwar, he said the home ministry was at present engaged in completing the procedural formalities in this regard.

There was almost total unanimity on the issue, he said, and that the creation of the new state was basically aimed at two things -- to honour the aspirations of the people of the hill region of Uttar Pradesh, and to correct the region so as to hasten its developmental process.

The home minister also expressed concern over the growing menace of terrorism in the North-Eastern states, but asserted that provisions of the National Security Act were sufficient to deal with the problem.

Advani was of the opinion that the Tripura government had been refusing to use the NSA as a matter of principle.

Now that one of its own ministers had himself become a victim of terrorism, the Tripura government had started thinking in terms of using the NSA, he added.

Replying to a question pertaining to the demands of the allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party for dismissing the Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa governments, the Union home minister reiterated that the central government did not want to misuse Article 356.

UNI

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