Haryana Quiz: Formation of Haryana (1966)

On that day the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 came into force and the Hindi-speaking districts of the old State of Punjab became the new State of Haryana, with seven districts and Chandigarh as a shared capital.

Parliament passed it as Act No. 31 of 1966 after the Shah Commission reported, and it created Haryana, made Chandigarh a Union Territory and joint capital, transferred the hill areas to Himachal Pradesh, kept a common High Court for both states and set up a board for the Bhakra-Nangal and…

It was appointed on 23 April 1966 under Justice J. C. Shah of the Supreme Court, took the tehsil as its unit and the language returns of the 1961 census as its test, and submitted its report on 31 May 1966, after which the Punjab Reorganisation Act was passed.

He belonged to the Congress and was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Haryana on 1 November 1966, the day the state came into being, heading a ministry formed from the Punjab legislators of the Haryana region.

A senior civil servant, he took office as the first Governor of Haryana on 1 November 1966, the day the state was created, and swore in the first Chief Minister.

The new state began with Ambala, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jind, Karnal, Mahendragarh and Rohtak, spread over 44,212 square kilometres.

He chaired the States Reorganisation Commission appointed in 1953, which reported in 1955 and turned down both the Punjabi Suba and a separate Hindi-speaking Haryana; the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 that followed merged PEPSU into Punjab instead.

Parliament set up this committee in 1965 on the demand for a Punjabi Suba under Sardar Hukam Singh, then Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

In 1966 the area now in Faridabad district formed part of Gurgaon district; Faridabad became a district of its own only in 1979, and Panchkula followed in 1995.

The city is administered by the Governor of Punjab as its Administrator, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court sits there, serving both states and the Union Territory.

The Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 added the hill districts of the old Punjab, among them Shimla, Kangra, Kullu and Lahaul and Spiti, along with parts of adjoining districts, to Himachal Pradesh, which was then a Union Territory and became a full state in 1971.

Because the dams and canals served more than one successor state, the Act apportioned rights in the Bhakra-Nangal and Beas projects and created a board to administer and operate them.