Back in 2012, during last Assembly Elections of India’s largest
state, Uttar Pradesh, one of the top trending issue which was doing rounds was
of division of state into four different states. Then chief minister of state
and BSP Supremo even passed a resolution in Assembly in 2011 to split UP into
four smaller states - Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim
Pradesh in the interest of providing better administration. Later, it got stuck
with Central Government ruled by Congress.
It was believed to
be a populist move with which Mayawati thought will benefit BSP in elections
but people gave Samajwadi Party, which was against the split, a massive
majority and since then no party has dared to raise the issue. With Uttar
Pradesh going to polls again, the issue related to split of state is almost
dead now. Neither political parties nor people of state are talking about new
states anymore.
As far as history
is concerned, the state constitutes of several provinces which was called The
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh which was shortened by the Government of
India Act 1935 to United Provinces and then came the name Uttar Pradesh as
province word doesn’t fit with the idea of Repubic.
Later in 2001, the
first division happened when the NDA government which was ruling India created
a separate state of Uttaranchal (renamed Uttarakhand).
The administrative
challenge of governing a state as big as UP, cannot be over-stated. With 18 Administrative
Divisions, 75 districts, and more than one lakh villages, Uttar Pradesh is the
5th largest state in India by area and the largest state by population. If it
was made an independent country, it would be 5th largest in the world by
population, after Indonesia.
UP is endowed with
vast natural resources more than any other state in India. The alluvial plains
along the rivers happen to be one of the richest natural gifts to the people
(many empires of ancient India flourished in Uttar Pradesh). With fertile land,
natural water resources, rich culture and an authoritative presence, in books
of history- Uttar Pradesh (UP) has everything that an administrative unit
needs, to write its growth story. But with such huge population & land area
it becomes difficult for the government to concentrate on the particular area
of development.
The argument that
smaller states accelerate the pace of development can be debated but it appears
to be largely a political idea. The BJP’s Election Manifesto for the Lok Sabha
polls of 2014, in a section under “Strengthen the Framework”, emphasises the
party’s recognition of regional aspirations and builds a case for greater
decentralisation through smaller states. The BJP never misses a chance to take credit
of creating the states of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhatssigarh during NDA-I.
But this time, party is silent and so as BSP which passed a resolution back in
2011 to divide UP into four different states.
It is believed
that Mayawati was the first politician who come up with the idea of splitting
UP into smaller administrative units. But that’s not true, In 1955, Ambedkar in
his book ‘Thoughts On Linguistic States’, proposed the idea of UP being split into
three states with the Western Region having Meerut as its capital, the Eastern
Region having Allahabad at its capital and the Central region with Kanpur as
its Capital. Following the same theory, later in 2011, then BSP government
decided to divide the state into 4 parts. According to Mayawati's blueprint,
Purvanchal will have 22 eastern districts of the state including Gorakhpur.
Lucknow, the capital, would be a part of Awadh Pradesh. Bundelkhand has seven districts;
Paschim Pradesh or Harit Pradesh would include Meerut and Ghaziabad.
As far as UP’s
growth is concerned, the state lacks badly in economic development and social development
indicators are equally disappointing. According to a study by Reserve Bank of
India (2013), with a total of 29.43% poor (BPL estimates), UP sits at the 20th
position overall, way below the All India average of 21.92% (based on MRP
consumption). According to Census (2011), only 27.3% people have access to tap
water, and a depressing 35.7% have access to toilets, both well below the
national average of 43.5%, and 46.9% respectively. Regionally, Pashchimanchal
looks economically prosperous, Purvanchal and Awadh are the dawdler and
Bundelkhand, including the area comes under Madhya Pradesh, one can see India
of 1950s.
Generally, there
is a perception that smaller states are easier to manage compared to larger
states but if we look at the Per Capita GDP or GDP growth rates for each of the
Indian states, there is hardly any correlation between the growth rate and size
of these states and is mostly dependent on Government policies and other
factors. Other issues which go against the division of state are cost of
infrastructure which will huge if new states get created, reduced
self-sustainability which will adversely affect the Bundelkhand region because
of lack of resources in that area and also, it hurts the very idea of unity in Diversity.
The Government
should consider setting up a State Reorganization Committee specifically tasked
at the division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller states. The previous decisions on
creating new states have been taken under political pressures, but the
situation demands that the government needs to handle the issue by better
political governance, fiscal management and rule of law. Regionalism,
sectarianism and casteism are a major deterrent to a united India and the idea
of dividing a state based on these factors is certainly not welcome.
Note: This article was first published in The Quint.
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