Lok Sabha passes Bill for merger of Daman-Diu and Dadra-Nagar Haveli UTs

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill that seeks to merge Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories), Bill, 2019 was passed after a reply by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.

He said the two Union Territories were being merged for better administration and prevent duplication of work and representation of the two UTs in the Lok Sabha will not change after the merger.

The Bill seeks to amend the First Schedule of Constitution and the merged territory will form the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

At present each UT has one seat in Lok Sabha and the Bill provides for the allocation of two Lok Sabha seats to the merged UT.

The statement of objects and reasons for the Bill says that having two separate constitutional and administrative entities in both the Union Territories leads to a lot of duplicacy, inefficiency and wasteful expenditure and causes an unnecessary financial burden on the government.

"In view of the policy of the government to have 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance', considering small population and limited geographical area of both the Union Territories and to use the services of officers efficiently, it has been decided to merge the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu into a single union territory," it said.