Govt plans to merge UTs Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli; bill introduced in Lok Sabha
New Delhi, Nov 26: The government on Tuesday introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill to merge Union Territories Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli into one.
The proposed legislation -- The Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill 2019 -- was introduced in the House by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.
The move comes three months after Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
"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 UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu into a single UT," Reddy said.
The merged Union Territory will be named as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The merger of the two UTs, located along the western coast near Gujarat, is done for better administration and check duplications of various work.
So far, both the Union Territories have separate budgets and different secretariats even though they are just 35 km apart.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli has just one district while Daman and Diu has two.
Both UTs were under the Portuguese rule for a long time. They were liberated from Portuguese rule in December, 1961. Since 1961 to 1987, Daman and Diu was part of the UT of Goa, Daman and Diu. In 1987, when Goa got statehood, Daman and Diu was made a separate UT.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli was occupied by the Portuguese in June 1783. Residents of Dadra and Nagar Haveli got liberated themselves from the Portuguese rule on August 2, 1954. Since 1954 to 1961, the territory was administered by a citizen's council called the Varishta Panchayat of Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
In 1961, it was merged with the Republic of India and made a Union Territory.
According to the bill, on and from the appointed day, there shall be allocated two seats to the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in the House of the People (Lok Sabha).
The Bombay High Court shall continue to extend to the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The members of each of the All India Services borne on the existing Union territories cadre immediately before the appointed day shall continue to be in the cadre of the same service of the existing Union territory in which they stand allocated before the appointed day.
Every person employed in connection with the affairs of the existing Union territories and serving immediately before the appointed day in the existing Union territories shall, on and from that day continue to serve in connection with the affairs of the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
On August 5, the central government had announced the abrogation of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and its division into two Union Territories.
The country currently has nine Union Territories after the creation of the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. However, with the merger of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the number of UTs will come down to eight.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
