Mayawati reiterates demand for UP's split

This comes a day after UPA decided to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to carve out Telangana

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday reiterated her demand for dividing UP into four  regions for speedier economic development and better administration.

This comes a day after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre decided to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to carve out Telangana, the 29th state of India.

During her previous regime, the Mayawati Cabinet on November 15, 2011, had approved the proposal to divide UP into four regions — Purvanchal (east UP), Bundelkhand, Awadh (central UP) and Paschim Pradesh (west UP).

On November 21, 2011, the state Assembly had ratified the proposal to divide UP and on November 23, the proposal was forwarded to the Centre for further action. Later, the Centre had reportedly sent the proposal back to the state with certain posers, including how UP proposed to divide public debt among the new states, division of the state bureaucracy, new political boundaries.

“It is unfortunate that the proposal to divide UP is still pending before the Congress-led UPA government,” she said in a press conference.

Welcoming the UPA decision on Telengana, Mayawati lamented the decision was much delayed, although the people in the region had been agitating on the issue for long.

She noted the BSP ideology was always supportive of smaller states and administrative units for better governance and facilitating timely justice to people.

Mayawati referred to her previous four regimes in UP, wherein she had created newer tehsils, districts, divisions and police zones.

She demanded the Centre to adopt the principle of ‘one language, one state’ and restructure bigger states in the country for carving out smaller ones.

Meanwhile, the ruling Samajwadi Party brushed aside the suggestion to divide the state. “Our party is against the division of UP. We are running the government with full majority of 224 legislators, who have been elected by the people of the state,” Shivpal Singh Yadav, UP Cabinet Minister and brother of SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav said.