Jairam Ramesh bats for reorganisation of UP

Former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today batted for reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh for better administrative purpose even as Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh and Delhi favoured a separate Reorganisation Commission to address the issues of smaller states.
Ramesh said when Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, she had sent a proposal to the Centre in 2011 for dividing the state in four, but the then UPA government was involved in bifurcating Andhra Pradesh and did not want "burden" of another state.
Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into two states---Andhra Pradhesh and Telangana by the UPA regime. The Congress, which had 33 MPs in Lok Sabha and was also in power in state, lost miserably in 2014 Assembly and General elections.

"The conditions which are prevailing in Uttar Pradesh and the way we are able to see UP in next 30-40 years....The state alone will have a population of 44 crores by 2040. This is the state's karma and you cannot change it. It has 75 districts, 52,000 gram panchayats.
"When you talk about good governance it is not possible even if any party gets a whopping mandate. We cannot run away from the reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh. Time has come (to do it). We have examples of Uttarkhand, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand before us. The way these states have progressed in 15 years, this could not have happened before.

"In November 2011, the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had given a proposal of carving out four new states of Poorvanchal, West Uttar Pradesh, Awadh and Bundelkhand. I was a part of the Union government then. The government was in process of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh then and it did not want the burden of (reorganising) Uttar Pradesh. But the time has come to do that," Ramesh said.

He was speaking at a conference on'Small States and Pro-People Paradigm' which was moderated by him. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Chattisgarh's Raman Singh and Jharkhand's Raghubir Das and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were also the part of the panel.

While Kejriwal, Rawat and Singh favoured forming of a separate Reorganisation of States Commission, Das said it was the prerogative of the Centre to decide on the issue.
Speaking on bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh and creation of
Chhattisgarh, Singh said it was a "win-win" situation for both the states. He said Chhattisgarh is the tenth largest state in the country in term of land expanse
"Chhattisgarh was considered as the punishment posting for any IAS or IPS officer before its division. But after the division of Madhya Pradesh it has proved to be boon for both states. For Madhya Pradesh, it was able to focus on its goals and in case of us, we were able to look at our growth," Singh said, adding that the Per Capita Income of both the states have improved after the bifurcation.

When asked whether there has been any change in governance in Uttar Pradesh after its bifurcation, Rawat said, "UP could not reap the benefits of development because the line of politics which was chosen in the state after 1990...We find ourself unfit in terms of caste politics and religion divide," Rawat said.