CHANDIGARH: It is not often that chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana come together under one roof to grapple with one of the most contentious and long-standing issues between the two states – the status of Chandigarh as capital city.

But that is precisely what happened when Captain Amarinder Singh and Manohar Lal Khattar shared the stage with V P Singh Badnore, Punjab Governor and administrator of Chandigarh, and Dr Pramod Kumar, eminent social scientist, at TOI’s summit – It’s Chandigarh’s Time – on Tuesday.

Speaking at the summit moderated by Tanvi Shukla of Mirror Now, both chief ministers decided to directly address the elephant in the room. While Khattar said he had already written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh to form a board for homogeneous development of Chandigarh as joint capital of Haryana and Punjab, Amarinder dismissed the idea.

The Punjab chief minister said more than one accord had given Chandigarh to Punjab as capital and no board or authority could be set up until it was made clear who the city belonged to.

Khattar reiterated Haryana’s claim on Chandigarh and asked Punjab to make New Chandigarh its capital. Dismissing Haryana’s claim, Amarinder asked Khattar to make either Panchkula or Panipat Haryana’s capital.

Dr Kumar said Punjab and Haryana are arguably the only states in the world that function from an outsourced capital city on which they have no control. “Both Punjab and Haryana without a capital city have lost space that could have acted as driver of growth,” he said.

Bandore, however, termed the current situation of Chandigarh a workable solution. “It is a win-win situation for Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana. The only thing we need to do is more coordination and corporation.”

