Lucknow, June 15: Former Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh will lead a new movement for the creation of six new states in the country.
In a definitive move, various outfits crusading for the creation of separate states have come together to form the National Federation for New States (NFNS). NFNS has been demanding the creation of Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh (in UP) besides Gorkhaland, Telangana and Vidarbha. The leaders of these organisations unanimously chose Amar Singh to lead the movement as NFNS chairman.
A proposal to this effect was moved by Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha president Raja Bundela and was seconded by P Niroop Reddy of the Telangana Vikas Kendra.
Amar Singh was at his usual sarcastic best as he spoke to reporters about the issue. “The Centre and states concerned have been playing billiards on this issue for several years now,” he said.
“They are pushing the balls from one to another and to another… we’ve had enough of this… we will now play football and kick the ball straight into the goal,” he quipped. “We will not accept the policy of management by postponement as major political parties have been doing till now,” he said.
Amar Singh, who was till now leading the campaign for Purvanchal (east UP), said the demand for six new states arose due to developmental imbalances, apart from socio-economic, cultural and linguistic similarities.
“Electricity produced in Purvanchal is used in Sefai and Badalpur [native villages of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati]. Vidarbha produces cotton, but its farmers are driven to suicide.
Bundelkhand craves for water… Isn’t this reason enough that these regions be granted statehood and allowed to stand on their own? Look at Chhattisgarh. Today it’s more developed than Madhya Pradesh,” he said.
NFNS convener Raja Bundela told reporters that the federation would not seek the setting up of a State Reorganisation Commission since that would delay the matter for another five years.
Representatives of Telangana, Gorkhaland, Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh have resolved to intensify their respective movements in the near future.
—Agencies