State / UT
Haryana
Haryana is a north Indian state carved out of Punjab on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, created along linguistic lines from the former state's Hindi-speaking southern districts. It holds roughly 25.4 million people (2011 Census) across 44,212 sq km and 22 districts, sends 10 members to the Lok Sabha and 5 to the Rajya Sabha, and legislates through a unicameral 90-seat Vidhan Sabha. Its defining structural feature is the incompleteness of the 1966 settlement: it shares its capital, Chandigarh, as a union territory with Punjab, shares a High Court with Punjab, and its claim to Ravi-Beas waters via the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal remains unexecuted six decades on. Wrapped around Delhi on three sides, its economy is concentrated in a National Capital Region belt whose fiscal weight is disproportionate to its area.
Updated
- Capital
- Chandigarh (union territory; shared with Punjab)
- Formed
- 1 November 1966 (Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966)
- Legislature
- Unicameral — Haryana Vidhan Sabha, 90 seats
- Lok Sabha seats
- 10
- Rajya Sabha seats
- 5
- Population (2011 Census)
- 25,351,462
- Area
- 44,212 sq km
- Districts
- 22 (6 divisions)
- High Court
- Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh (shared)
- GSDP (2025-26 BE)
- ₹13,47,486 crore
Role
Haryana is a federal actor defined less by what the 1966 reorganisation gave it than by what that reorganisation left unfinished. It governs through a unicameral 90-seat Vidhan Sabha seated in Vidhan Bhawan, Chandigarh, with a Council of Ministers responsible to that house and a Governor as the Union’s constitutional channel into the state. Its executive runs the standard State List portfolio — police and law and order, land and land revenue, agriculture and irrigation, health, and education — across 22 districts. But three of its central institutions are not wholly its own. Its capital is a union territory administered by Punjab’s Governor and claimed by Punjab. Its High Court is shared with Punjab. Its share of Ravi-Beas water, affirmed by a Supreme Court opinion in November 2016 declaring Punjab’s 2004 termination Act illegal, has not been delivered because the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal remains unbuilt on the Punjab side. Haryana is therefore a state whose disputes with a neighbour are structurally routed through the Centre and the Supreme Court rather than settled bilaterally — an unusually litigated federalism.
Its weight in the Union is economic rather than numerical. Ten Lok Sabha seats and five in the Rajya Sabha make it a modest bloc, but a GSDP budgeted at ₹13.47 lakh crore for 2025-26 and a per-capita GSDP among the highest of the large states give it standing disproportionate to its 25.4 million people. That prosperity is geographically concentrated: the state wraps around Delhi on three sides, and the National Capital Region belt — Gurugram above all, which draws close to 70% of annual investment into the state — supplies the services and manufacturing base that funds a budget still carrying a revenue deficit of 1.53% of GSDP. The other Haryana is agricultural, 18% of output but the anchor of a wheat-and-paddy procurement system coupled tightly to the Union’s minimum support price regime, which makes central agricultural policy a direct determinant of rural incomes here and repeatedly turns the state’s own highways into the staging ground for protest aimed at Delhi. The state’s recurring internal fault line is caste-and-quota politics: the February 2016 Jat reservation agitation shut the state for ten days and killed around 30 people, and the reservation Act legislated in response was set aside by the shared High Court within a fortnight of notification. Governments in Chandigarh change; the capital question, the water question and the NCR’s fiscal dominance do not.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
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Chandigarh made a union territory and shared capital
Originally assigned to Haryana on 1961 census lines, the city was instead converted into a union territory serving as capital to both Punjab and Haryana. The arrangement was framed as interim and has never been superseded.
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Haryana constituted as a state under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966
The Hindi-speaking southern districts of the former Punjab were separated to form Haryana, completing the linguistic reorganisation of the north. The Act simultaneously provided for hill transfers to Himachal and created the union territory of Chandigarh.
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Construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal launched at Kapoori
The canal was to deliver Haryana's share of Ravi-Beas waters, allocated by a 1976 central executive order and revised by the 1981 inter-state agreement. Work halted in 1990 and only the Haryana reach was ever completed.
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Rajiv-Longowal accord provides for Chandigarh's transfer to Punjab; remains unimplemented
The accord contemplated Chandigarh passing to Punjab with compensating territory to Haryana. It was never given effect; since 1984 the Governor of Punjab has concurrently served as Chandigarh's administrator, leaving Haryana without a capital of its own.
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Punjab legislates to terminate the river-water agreements
The Punjab Termination of Agreements Act abrogated the accords underpinning Haryana's SYL claim. The President referred the question to the Supreme Court, converting a construction dispute into a constitutional one.
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Gurgaon renamed Gurugram
The NCR district accounts for close to 70% of annual investment into the state and anchors its services economy, giving Haryana a revenue base concentrated in a narrow belt abutting Delhi.
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Jat reservation agitation paralyses the state for ten days
Protests demanding OBC classification escalated into violence across the state and into the NCR; roughly 30 people were killed. The state legislated a response — the Haryana Backward Classes Act, notified 13 May 2016, granting quotas to Jats and other named groups — and the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled against it on 26 May 2016, an instance of the state's legislative competence being checked by the shared High Court.
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Supreme Court holds Punjab's termination Act illegal
The Court's opinion on the Presidential Reference found the 2004 abrogation unlawful, affirming Haryana's entitlement. A 2017 direction on compliance followed and Haryana made its first dedicated budget allocation for completion; the canal remains unbuilt on the Punjab side.
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Fifteenth Vidhan Sabha elected
Polling across all 90 seats returned the BJP with 48, the Congress with 37, the INLD with 2 and 3 independents, on a 67.99% turnout. The preceding assembly's term was to end on 3 November 2024.
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Budget puts GSDP at ₹13.47 lakh crore with a 2.7% fiscal deficit
Expenditure of ₹1,69,229 crore (excluding debt repayment) against net receipts of ₹1,33,234 crore, financed by ₹35,561 crore of net borrowing. Services contribute 53% of the economy, manufacturing 29% and agriculture 18%.
Frequently asked
- What is Haryana?
- Haryana is a north Indian state carved out of Punjab on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, created along linguistic lines from the former state's Hindi-speaking southern districts. It holds roughly 25.4 million people (2011 Census) across 44,212 sq km and 22 districts, sends 10 members to the Lok Sabha and 5 to the Rajya Sabha, and legislates through a unicameral 90-seat Vidhan Sabha. Its defining structural feature is the incompleteness of the 1966 settlement: it shares its capital, Chandigarh, as a union territory with Punjab, shares a High Court with Punjab, and its claim to Ravi-Beas waters via the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal remains unexecuted six decades on. Wrapped around Delhi on three sides, its economy is concentrated in a National Capital Region belt whose fiscal weight is disproportionate to its area.
- When was Haryana established?
- Haryana was established 1 November 1966.
- What does Haryana do?
- Its remit covers State List subjects: law and order and the state police, land and land revenue, agriculture and irrigation, public health, and school and higher education, Revenue administration across 22 districts and 6 divisions, through a Deputy Commissioner-led district structure, Urban development and land pooling in the National Capital Region belt, exercised through the state's urban development authority and district town planning, Distinctive institutional features: a capital and a High Court shared with Punjab, an unresolved inter-state river-water claim, and an agricultural procurement system tightly coupled to the Union's MSP regime.
- What is the latest on Haryana?
- As of 2026-07-17: Budget puts GSDP at ₹13.47 lakh crore with a 2.7% fiscal deficit. Expenditure of ₹1,69,229 crore (excluding debt repayment) against net receipts of ₹1,33,234 crore, financed by ₹35,561 crore of net borrowing. Services contribute 53% of the economy, manufacturing 29% and agriculture 18%.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
- Haryana State Portal site
Government of Haryana's official portal — departments, districts, schemes and state profile.
haryana.gov.in/
- Haryana Vidhan Sabha legislation
The unicameral legislature, seated at Vidhan Bhawan in Chandigarh; members, business and bills.
www.haryanaassembly.gov.in/
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Electoral rolls, the 90 assembly constituencies and election results.
ceoharyana.gov.in/
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State's statistics authority — Economic Survey, State Income/GSDP series.
esaharyana.gov.in/
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Annual statistical abstract of the state.
abstract.esaharyana.gov.in/
- PRS — Haryana Budget Analysis reports
Independent analysis of the state's expenditure, deficits and debt.
prsindia.org/budgets/states/haryana-budget-analysis-2025-26