NDA (II) 2022 General Ability Test · Question 130 of 150

Correct — D, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Parliament passed the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill in 2019; it received the President's assent on 9 December 2019, and the appointed day on which it came into force was notified as 26 January 2020. From that date the two small former Portuguese territories on the Gujarat coast became a single Union Territory carrying the combined name, with Daman as its capital. The government's stated reason was administrative — the two units were tiny, geographically close and separately duplicating an entire secretariat, treasury and cadre.

• (a)Daman and Diu and Puducherry — Puducherry was not part of any merger. It is a Union Territory with its own legislative assembly and council of ministers, and its four districts lie scattered along the eastern and western coasts, far from Daman and Diu.
• (b)Puducherry and Dadra and Nagar Haveli — Again Puducherry is the wrong half of the pair. The merger joined Dadra and Nagar Haveli to Daman and Diu, both of them former Portuguese possessions on the same stretch of the western coast.
• (c)Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands — Neither of these was touched. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands remain a separate Union Territory administered by a Lieutenant Governor, and merging an island group with a territory on the mainland was never proposed.

The First Schedule of the Constitution lists the States and Union Territories of India, so creating, merging or renaming any of them requires Parliament to pass a law amending that Schedule. Two such changes fell close together. In October 2019 the State of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh, which took the count of Union Territories to nine. Then on 26 January 2020 the merger of Dadra and Nagar Haveli with Daman and Diu brought it back down to eight.

The elimination here is quick once you notice that three of the four options contain Puducherry, which was never involved, so the odd one out is the answer. The deeper point worth carrying is the arithmetic that follows. As of the September 2022 exam India had 28 States and 8 Union Territories, and that count is a direct consequence of this merger — NDA has asked for the figure itself in another paper. That count still stands today, with no further merger or reorganisation since. Both merged territories were Portuguese possessions until 1961, which is why they are grouped together historically as well as administratively.

• The merger Act received the President's assent on 9 December 2019 and came into force on 26 January 2020.
• The merged Union Territory is named Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, with Daman as its capital.
• The merger reduced India's Union Territories from nine to eight, giving the familiar count of 28 States and 8 Union Territories.
• Creating or merging a State or Union Territory requires an amendment of the First Schedule of the Constitution, which lists them.

• Bringing Puducherry into the merger; it was never part of it, and it appears in three of the four options for exactly that reason.
• Dating the merger to 2019 because the Act was passed then — the appointed day was 26 January 2020.
• Forgetting that the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir moved the Union Territory count the other way just months earlier.

As a straight current-affairs recall like this, as a count of States and Union Territories, or as a question on which constitutional schedule must be amended.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The capital of the merged Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is

  • (a)Silvassa
  • (b)Daman
  • (c)Diu
  • (d)Panaji

  Answer(b) Daman — Silvassa was the headquarters of the former Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Panaji is in Goa.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Creating a new State of the Indian Union requires amendment of which Schedule of the Constitution?

  • (a)First
  • (b)Second
  • (c)Fourth
  • (d)Seventh

  Answer(a) First — the First Schedule lists the States and Union Territories along with their territories.