Why Did The Government Of India Merge The Union Territories Of Daman And Diu And Dadra Nagar Haveli? What Will Be The Benefit Of The People Of Those States From This Merger?

India got freedom from Britishers in 1947 but at that time, Daman, Diu, Goa, Dadra Nagar Haveli was under Portuguese rule. Daman and Diu were under the control of Portuguese Rulers for more than four centuries and got liberated from Portuguese control on 19th December 1961. It was initially a part of the U.T. of Goa but after Goa attained its statehood, the Union Territory of Daman and Diu were separated on 30th May 1987.

Whereas Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a landlocked Union Territory between south Maharashtra and North Gujarat covering an area of 491.00 sq. km. It got its freedom from Portuguese Rulers on 2nd August 1954. Initially, the Administration of Dadra & Nagar Haveli was free from Indian influence but later on, this Union Territory was merged into the Union of India in the year 1961 and hence was administered by the administrative officer. Therefore, these areas were given special advantages to protect their interests. Hence they were made union territories. In fact, Goa was also a union territory initially until it was given the status of full state a couple of decades back.

However, now the Union Territory of Daman and Diu has been merged with the Union Territory, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. This was done by the 2019 bill. The Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019 was passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the winter session of Parliament. This bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on November 27, 2019, and by Rajya Sabha on December 03, 2019. And hence became new merged UT on 26th January 2020. Therefore from the 26th of January the two individual UTs i.e., Daman & Diu (2 districts) and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (1 district) will be merged into one Union Territory and will be named as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu with headquarters at Daman.

Although many have shown their disagreement on the merge and had called this decision of legislation not viable there are some reasons as disclosed by the government which proved this decision to be fruitful. The main reason among them is as follows:-

1. One of the main objectives of this bill was to enable better coordination in the working of the administrative power and to stop the duplication of work. This merger will also help in the development of the small regions which are closely situated near each other.
2. The government will save a great deal on economic expenditure as costs for running two formal setups of public administration can be reduced to one significantly with this act.
3. As the two Union Territories reportedly share a similar history, culture, language, and administrative setup, maintaining them as two separate secretariats and parallel departments will only result in inefficiency, duplicity, waste of manpower, and wastage of expenditure which will cause an unnecessary financial burden on the state exchequer and the government.
4. Merging will also help in cutting down the administrative cost therefore this move was supported by civil societies along with the elected Member of Parliament of that area.
5. It is helpful in local administration in terms of integration.

Along with this many benefits came in hand with this merge. As the assets and liabilities of both Union Territories will be merged and will belong to the new UT. The reservation provided to people in the two union territories will still be granted to the SCs and STs in the new UT as before.

The Bombay High Court shall continue to extend to the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu for any judicial disputes.

Moreover, there shall be two seats allocated to the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

Also even after the merger, the two UTs would officially function in the same language in which they were working before. One of the main benefits from this merge was that Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli had separate budgets and different secretariats even though they are just 3 which give a wide scope for their development.

Thus, providing a sense of security among the citizens of these UT and giving assurance to them about a bright future of their Union Territories. I, therefore, feel that this decision of the government was very appropriate and appreciable as they took a new step towards the development of these two UT’s along with the development of the country as a whole.