Punjab Reorganisation Act and the appointed day on which Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh took shape

Background

Punjab as it stands today was made by the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, listed as ACT NO. 31 OF 1966. The Act was passed after the Lok Sabha was told in March 1966 that the Government had accepted in principle the reorganisation of the then State of Punjab on a linguistic basis. It did four things at once: it kept a State of Punjab, formed the new State of Haryana, created a new Union territory named Chandigarh, and transferred hill areas to what was then the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. The Act fixes the appointed day as the 1st day of November, 1966, and defines the population ratio between Haryana, Punjab and the Union as 37.88 to 54.84 to 7.78 for dividing what had been shared. The Tribune notes that this is why Punjab Divas falls on November 1, and that the reorganisation followed the report of the Punjab Boundary Commission headed by Justice JC Shah. It also records that the planned city of Chandigarh was made a Union territory to serve as capital for both the new States. The name Punjab itself is built from the Persian panj and aab: the country of five rivers, which the paper lists as Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej.