By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Tuesday advocated trifurcation of the state but put the onus of initiating the move on the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
“I am all for the division of Uttar Pradesh into three parts and would heartily support the creation of a separate Bundelkhand as a first step, provided the move is initiated by the Congress-ruled centre,” Mayawati said at a press conference on the occasion of her 52nd birthday celebrations at her official residence here.
Her support for carving out an independent state of Bundelkhand in southern Uttar Pradesh, a Purvanchal in the east and another province in the west comes a day before Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi visits Jhansi, the heart of the Bundelkhand region.
While attributing the backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand to perennial drought, she said: “That problem has been there for decades; past state and central governments did not care to do anything about it.”
Mayawati added that the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government had “made a mockery of drought affected farmers of Bundelkhand by offering them cheques of Rs.10 and Rs.20 as relief”.
However, her government has “enhanced the minimum agriculture subsidy from Rs.250 to Rs.1,000 and a sum of Rs.135 crore (Rs.1.35 billion) has been distributed to those who have suffered losses of more than 50 percent of their ‘kharif’ crop”, she said.
She talked about a Rs.16 billion action plan for eradication of drought from the region as well as setting up a 4,000 MW thermal power project in collaboration with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Both were amongst the list of projects scheduled be launched by her on her birthday.
Rahul Gandhi is likely to demand more funds from New Delhi for Bundelkhand. Mayawati’s demand for Rs.800 billion for the development of Bundelkhand and Purvanchal regions was already pending before the Manmohan Singh government.
The demand for a separate state of Bundelkhand, of which some areas fall in Madhya Pradesh, appears to be becoming a new divisive issue. Besides the Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also planning to focus on the region.