It is unfortunate that those ruling the state at present are centered to Saifai and Mainpuri. The development in remaining district of Uttar Pradesh has been put on the backburner.
This was stated by Rastriya lok Dal supremo Chaudhary Ajit Singh here on Sunday. He was addressing the participants in State Reorganization representatives meet at Chaudhary Charan Singh auditorium at Sahkarita Bhawan.
He said the demand of reorganization of states was not new and was in existence even when Uttrakhand and Telangana had not separated from their parent states respectively. Citing example he said Bengal and Orissa used to be a single state in 1912 and in 1936 it got separated from Bihar and later Maharastra got separated from Gujrat. “Telangana got separated after a 50 years long struggle,’ he pointed out.
Stressing on the need of separation of states for proper development, he said formation of small states will pave way for all round development. “UP is fifth largest state in the world and there reorganization of the state was need of the time,” the RlD leader said. He said that RlD will form a convening committee to discuss different aspects and will shape the party demand into a mass movement akin the Telangana struggle.
The meet was also addressed by convener of committee of different organizations batting for formation of Bundelkhand, Dr Babu lal Tiwari. Tiwari said Bundelkhand was backward in development and the present government was not giving it required attention. He had all praise for RlD chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh and he thanked Chaudhary for spearheading the agitation to press the demand of reorganization of UP. He presented details of revenue earned by Bundelkhand and it contribution in the production, tourism and other ventures. He lamented that despite the contribution the Buldelkhand region was not getting it share of funds for development.
Addressing the meeting RlD national general secretary, Trilok Tyagi said it was Chudhary Ajit Singh who had voiced for formation of small states for better governance and development. He seconded Chaudhary Ajit Singh demand while highlighting the plight of people of Bundelkhand, Western UP and other parts of the state.
Putting before the plight of people of Eastern UP, Dr Sudhakar Pandey said 14 sugar mills out of a total of 28 were lying defunct in Purvanchal having a population of 8000 crore.
At this occasion, senior congress leader, Dr Balram Singh, former vice president of District Youth Congress, Sultanpur and one time close acquaintance of Sonia Gandhi family, took the membership of RlD amid the presence of RlD leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh.