Centre set to merge UTs of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli

New Delhi, Nov 23: The government of India is planning on merging the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in order to administer them better.

The Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill 2019 will be placed before the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. The move comes three months after the Centre bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh into two Union Territories.

The Bill was cleared by Cabinet recently and Arjun Meghwal, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs said that this is part of the proposed government business during the week commencing from November 25 onwards.

The two UTs are located just 35 kilometres apart and it was felt that merging them was in the best interest of its administration. Currently both the UTs are managed by a common administrator. The merger would ensure that there is no duplication of work and it was also found that to have a separate budget for the the UTs was not a feasible proportion.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli was liberated from the Portuguese on August 2 1954. It was finally merged into the Union of India in 1961.

Daman and Diu on the other hand after being liberated from the Portuguese on December 19 1961 became part of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. Goa became a separate state in 1987 and the UT of Daman and Diu came into existence on May 30 1987.