Lucknow: Members of various political parties, including the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), will meet here Saturday to launch a joint movement for the division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller states.

Spearheading the agitation would be the RLD, which is demanding a separate Harit Pradesh comprising western Uttar Pradesh districts; the Bundelkhand Vikas Sena (BVS), which wants a Bundelkhand state including seven districts of Uttar Pradesh and six of Madhya Pradesh; and the Purvanchal Vikas Parishad (PVP) which wants a separate state carved out of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"We decided to launch the agitation as a part of our strategy to mount joint pressure on the state government so that it tables a resolution for the division of Uttar Pradesh," RLD state spokesperson Ram Asrey Verma told reporters Friday.

"A number of political and non-political outfits favouring the division of Uttar Pradesh will come on the same platform," he added.

The argument is that smaller states will result in better development.

"The only solution to all problems -- poverty, hunger, lack of development and non-existent infrastructure in parts of Uttar Pradesh -- is its division," said BVS chief Harish Kapoor.

"After a survey in 1949, the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) had laid stress on the necessity of a separate and autonomous Bundelkhand. The time has come for us to join hands for the development of our respective regions," he added.

Following the central government's green signal for a separate Telangana state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has already made her stance clear.

According to her, the further partition of Uttar Pradesh would "ultimately be in the larger interest of providing better governance, besides of course living up to the expectations of the people".

EMAIL THIS NEWS COMMENTS No comments yet