Stalled
By: Vrashali Khandelwal
A demand for statehood has been one of the most prominent promises made by the Delhi Government. This is to ensure that there is streamlined governance framework in matters of service delivery and enforcement of law and order. Further, the repetitive obstructions of Lieutenant Governor in various welfare and development schemes make a strong case for demanding a full statehood.
Delhi Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution on 6 June 2018 for granting full statehood to the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The resolution demands the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, to take all necessary legal and legislative steps to declare NCT of Delhi a full-fledged state without any further delay.
It must be mentioned that the history of demand of full statehood is quite old. The BJP Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma proposed a draft bill for full statehood of Delhi in 1998. Then the Vajpayee government acknowledged the concerns and Delhi Statehood Bill was presented in Parliament in August 2003 as the Delhi State Bill by the then Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani. It was referred to a standing committee, which had Pranab Mukherjee as its chair. However, the bill lapsed with dissolution of Lok Sabha and subsequent elections in 2004.
In 2014, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) promised to ensure full statehood for Delhi as part of its manifesto. However, BJP has not supported the same demand now.
Aam Aadmi Party in order to push for full statehood set up about 1000 teams for carrying out a door-to-door campaign to make people aware about the Statehood issue.
Considering the full statehood is a subject matter of Parliament, and the BJP which committed full statehood has backtracked on its promise, the promise is hence classified in the category of ‘Stalled’.