Search the Internet           Tips

Uttaranchal is born;
Governor, CM sworn in

The 27th state of the Indian Union, Uttaranchal, came into being at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, as acting Chief Justice A A Desai administered the oath of office and secrecy to the state's first Governor Surjit Singh Barnala.

Ten minutes later, the Governor swore in Bharatiya Janata Party's Nityanand Swamy as the state's first chief minister.

Among those present at the function were Union Home Minister L K Advani, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, UP BJP chief Kalraj Mishra and Congress leader N D Tiwari

Outside members of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal struck a discordant note by raising slogans like " Kedar, Badri ki sarkar, Gairsain me ho sarkar ". They were protesting against Dehradun being made provisional capital of the new state.

The chief minister said he would expand his cabinet on November 10.

Explaining his priorities, Swamy told mediapersons that he would withdraw all cases pending against Uttarakhand activists.

Swamy said a commission would be constituted to decide the permanent capital. There were many people who had been coming to him, he said, to urge that the permanent capital be Gairsain, Kalagarh, Ramnagar or Dehradun.

''But I do not want to get into this controversy. They will be free to express their opinions before the commission.''

He said he would demand special status for the hill state.

He said his top priority would be development of the state and welfare of the hill people.

As a large part of the new state does not have adequate drinking water and schools, he said he would ensure that every two villages had a school and potable water was available to all.

Unemployment was another area that would receive his government's special attention, he said.

The 30-member state assembly has 23 BJP members, three from the Samajwadi Party and two each from the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Elections to the state assembly will be held after a year after the delimitation of the state's constituencies.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report