Decide Chandigarh issue before separate HC for Haryana: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the issue of Chandigarh with Haryana should be decided before the latter's demand for a separate High Court.
"Before demanding a separate High Court for Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should first decide the fate of Chandigarh in favour of Punjab," Badal said, when asked about Hooda's demand for a separate high court.
Hooda in the Conference of Chief Ministers of States and Chief Justices of the High Courts recently held in New Delhi, had sought separate High Court and demanded parity with Punjab in its share of judges in the existing common High Court.

Badal said, "Chandigarh belongs to Punjab. Haryana should give up its claim on Chandigarh. The city had been denied to Punjab despite concrete assurances by the union government."
He said as per Rajiv-Longowal accord of 1986, Chandigarh was to go to Punjab.
The two states have a common high court in Chandigarh since 1966, when Haryana was carved out of Punjab.
Both Punjab and Haryana have been at loggerheads not only over water but also over Chandigarh and have been demanding to make the city their capital.
On state Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu's comment on the social networking site that her husband and BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu felt "sidelined and ignored" in the party, Badal said it is internal matter of BJP and party would settle the issue.