BOUNDARIES ANNOUNCED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26543, 19 August 1947, Page 5

BOUNDARIES ANNOUNCED

CHAIRMAN MAKES FINAL DECISION NEW DELHI, Aug. 17. Because the members of the Punjab and Bengal Boundary Commissions were unable to agree on the boundaries of the new provinces, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. who is chairman of both commissions, had to make the final decisions, which gave the biggest part of the Punjab and Bengal provinces to Pakistan, which originally claimed all of them. Sir Cyril Radcliffe, in his report to the Governor-General said the Punjab problem was complicated by canal systems. It was impossible to preserve undivided some of the canal hydro-electric schemes. He re : commended that the two States should agree to joint control. i The Boundaries Commission announced the boundaries of the “ partition ” States of Punjab and Bengal. Lahore will be in Pakistan, and Calcutta in India. Multan and Rawalpindi, which are two of the five divisions in Punjab, will be in West Punjab, which is in the new Pakistan province, and Nanakaria Sahib, the holy shrine of the Sikhs in the Sheikhupure district, which is mainly Moslem and which the Sikhs have been claiming, will be in Pakistan. West Punjab will include three districts of the Lahore division—Gujranwala, north of Lahore, Sialkot, north-east, and Sheikhupure—Chinian. and Lahore. Tahsils will be in West Punjab. Kasur Tahsill, 30 miles south of Lahore, will be divided between East and West Punjab. Montgomery will be in West Punjab. The country west of the Ravi River, in the Ingurdaspur district north of Lahore, will be in West Punjab. The country to the east will be in East Punjab. East Punjab, which is Indian, will include the whole of the Jullundur division in the east, Ambla in the south-east, and Amritsar East Bengal, which is in Pakistan, will include the whole of the eastern seaboard of the division of Chittagong and the Dacca division north of ChittfVr gong East Bengal, which is Indian, will include the whole of the Burdwan division north-west of Calcutta. Ease Bengal will include the Rangpur, Bogra, Rajshahi, and Pabna districts which are in the confluence of the Jumna River with the Ganges. East Bengal will also include the Khulna district in the Ganges Delta. West Bengal will include Calcutta, Parganas south of Calcutta, Murshidabad, 100 miles north of Calcutta, and the Darjeeling district of the Rajshahi division. The districts of Nadia, Jessore, Dinapur, Jalpaigusi, and Malda will be divided between East and West Bengal. This will draw almost a straight line from the Himalayas east of Darjeeling to the Bay of Bengal just east of Calcutta. Because the residents of the Sulhet district of Assam voted to join Pakistan. Sylhet will be in East Bengal, which is in Pakistan. The province of Assam will be Indian; and four small districts in Sylhet will remain within Assam. The newspaper National Call says 100 armed members of the Pakistan boundary force fired on and injured many villagers in the Amritsar district yesterday. An Indian boundary force detachment intervened.