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There will be one UT less as Modi govt plans to merge Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

Proposal with Union cabinet and may come up in meeting today. Centre reckons the two UTs are just 35 km apart and don't require 'duplication of work'.

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New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to reorganise and reclassify the union territories in the country, beginning with the centrally-administered regions of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, ThePrint has learnt.

According to highly places sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the government has decided to merge Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli into a single union territory. This, the sources added, is the first reorganisation on the cards.

A source in the ministry told ThePrint that the proposal is with the Union Cabinet and is awaiting its nod. The cabinet meeting Wednesday is likely to discuss the issue. “The idea is to reduce duplication of work since the two UTs are just about 35 km apart,” the source said. “Moreover, Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a single-district UT, so it did not make sense for separate budgets and communications and other duplications for the two different secretariats.”

Daman and Diu, on the other hand, has two districts — one in Daman and the other in Diu.

Another ministry official said the merger would also lead to better administration of the union territories through better and single central monitoring of various schemes and projects in the new merged union territory. “It is also expected to save costs by doing away with double administrative expenditure,” the official said.

The two union territories share a similar history and culture and have a common administrator.


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Capital in Daman and Diu

Once the proposal gets the approval of the cabinet, the Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Merger bill will go to Parliament for the final nod, the official quoted above said.

The merger will be implemented only after final approval from Parliament.

It is learnt that the headquarters of the combined union territory would be located in Daman and Diu and the new UT is likely to be called Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu.

The two, along with Goa, were all part of Portuguese India. Dadra and Nagar Haveli became a part of independent India in 1954 and was self-governing till 1961 before it became a union territory. Daman and Diu along with Goa became a part of India in 1961. When Goa was conferred statehood on 30 May 1987, Daman and Diu was made a separate union territory.


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2 COMMENTS

  1. The Uniform Civil Code applies to Daman and Diu but not to Dadra and Nagar Haveli and may now be introduced in the latter. Instead of keeping them under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi, why not make them subservient to Goa of which they have been a part historically.?

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