RLD puts ball in Mayawati's court on UP reorganisation issue

Lucknow, Oct 25 (UNI) Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Ajit Singh today put the ball in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's court on the issue of the reorganisation of the state.

Mr Singh urged the Chief Minister to take initiative for the division of state, rather than wait for a central government proposal to this effect.

Addressing newspersons here, Mr Singh claimed the development of UP was not possible without reorganisation and all the political parties were in favour of smaller states.

Referring to Ms Mayawati's recent statement at a party rally in Lucknow, the RLD chief mentioned that she had talked about creating Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and a separate state in western UP, if the centre took the initiative.

''The CM should make the first move in this regard and not wait for the centre to take the initiative,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the RLD gearing up to harp on its pet issue of re-organisation of Uttar Pradesh during the coming winter session of the state legislature starting October 30.

The party will move a resolution in the winter session to this effect.

Mr Singh iterated that the reorganisation of UP was the main political issue of his party.

He said his party had spearheaded several movements for carving out a Harit Pradesh in western UP, Purvanchal in eastern UP and Bundelkhand.

''The people of the state also favour smaller states,'' he noted.

Mr Singh also termed the state government as anti-farmer and said it had failed to announce the minimum support price of sugarcane, although the crushing season had started.

The former union minister further flayed Ms Mayawati for ''wasting money'' on installing statues and Ambedkar Park saying she has no right to waste public money.'' UNI