Let there be 4: Maya moves to split UP

A cabinet meeting approved the proposal today,a day after Rahul Gandhi launched the Congress campaign for Uttar Pradesh attacking the Mayawati government on corruption and poor development.

Since the BSP has a majority in the house,the proposal to divide the state is assured of passage. It will then be sent to the centre for follow-up action.

“Our government has always supported B R Ambedkar’s ideology of smaller states and smaller administrative units. We believe that smaller administrative units can be better managed in terms of law and order as well as administration,” said Mayawati.

She pointed out that under Article 3 of the constitution,the power to form new states,give them names and define their boundaries is given to Parliament,“which is not possible without the initiative of the Union government”.

“We had hoped that the Central government would take an initiative on its own,but unfortunately they have not done anything so far. After much deliberation and keeping in mind the demand as well as aspirations of the people of the state,we have decided to bring a resolution for dividing UP.”

Supporters of smaller states have always accused Mayawati of insincerity,saying that while she supported the idea of creation of new states,she had not got a proposal passed in the Assembly on which the Centre could act.

The proposed resolution is another attempt by Mayawati to put the Congress in a spot. In recent months,she has written letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh supporting demands for reservation for Muslims and inclusion of the Jat community in the Centre’s OBC list.

Mayawati pointed out that “Uttar Pradesh is the biggest state with over 19.95 crore population as per the 2011 census,which is 16 per cent of the population of the entire country”.

In the past,her government had formed new divisions,districts as well as tehsils in order to create smaller administrative units,the Chief Minister said.

Accusing the “wrong policies” of the past governments of the BJP,SP and Congress for having hampered balanced development of the state,Mayawati said: “UP has given the maximum number of prime ministers but they did not take proper steps for development of the state. Since we came to power in May 2007,I have written many times to the Central government for a package of Rs 80,000 crore for the development of backward regions of the state but the government of India has not taken any steps.”

The demand to create smaller states has been there for long,with the most vocal being for a separate state of Bundelkhand,consisting of parts of seven districts of UP and adjoining areas of Madhya Pradesh. Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha of film actor Raja Bundela has been actively campaigning for it.

In Western UP,the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh has been demanding a Harit Pradesh for long. Similarly,there is a demand for carving out a Poorvanchal in eastern UP,and it is the main agenda of Amar Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Manch in the coming elections.