Favouring carving out of smaller states, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday sought the Centre's consent for the creation of separate Bundelkhand and western Uttar Pradesh states on the lines of Telangana.
"I have renewed the demand for smaller states through a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to give consent to Uttar Pradesh as it has given to Andhra Pradesh for setting up a separate Telangana state", Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow. "Both the BSP and my government are of the view that smaller districts and states are conducive to allround development and we have been making a demand for trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh through letters," she said, adding she had also written to the Centre in this regard on March 15, 2008.
Mayawati stressed that her government would support the demand for separate states in case the Centre takes an initiative in this direction as required under Section 3 of he Constitution and would immediately get a resolution passed by the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. "The people of Bundelkhand and western Uttar Pradesh have been making the demand for separate states for a long time and it has gained momentum ever since the Centre has agreed on Telangana," she said and added that considering its vast population and size, Uttar Pradesh is a very big state.
Smaller states can be managed better from the administrative and development point of view and it is also necessary to give due importance to the aspirations of the people," Mayawati said, adding her party in a BSP rally here as also in the Vidhan Sabha in 2007 has already expressed its views on the subject. Trying to win over the people of these regions who had been staging agitations, Mayawati appealed to them to forcefully raise their demand before the Centre but cautioned them against taking law in their hands.
"They should raise their demand in a disciplined manner and not take law in their hands at the instigation of anyone." To a question, Mayawati clarified that she was not against a separate Purvanchal comprising eastern districts as demanded by the people of that region. To another question whether her demands on the subject were similar to those of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha president Raja Bundela, an agitated Mayawati said "they are in the government and so they have to get the demand implemented rather than raise it".
Meanwhile, BJP on Friday criticised Mayawati for her statement supporting trifurcation of her state, alleging she was treading the path of the Congress to divert attention from her failures as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
"By treading on the path of the Congress and supporting partition of states, Mayawati is diverting attention from her failures as a chief minister," BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
He alleged that, on the lines of the Congress, some politicians were throwing the Constitution and constitutional provisions to the wind and indulging in political exhibitionism which would harm the country.
Navqi asserted that nobody was against formation of new states keeping social, political, economic and geographical factors in mind but "the manner in which political one-upmanship has begun it will not benefit the country and the state which is divided".
He accused the Central government of deliberately trying to divert attention from real issues like price rise, poverty and unemployment. "This is not the right time when the country is facing more serious problems. The government is trying to divert attention by breaking states." PTI
