Mayawati for UP's division, writes to PM again

Lucknow, Mar 15: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today reiterated that her party advocated the division of the state into four smaller states and said a fresh letter had been sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard yesterday.

The reiteration from the Chief Minister came a day after Dr Singh had said in Varanasi that Poorvanchal (eastern part of UP) could be carved out as a separate state but the initiative had to come from the state government. ''We have always supported separate Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Western UP states to be carved out from UP and already sent letters in this regard,'' she said while addressing a party meeting at the state party headquarter on the occasion of 74th birth anniversary of party ideologue Kanshiram here.

Even then, a fresh letter had been sent to the PM yesterday only to reaffirm that her government was in the favour of division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller states.

Showing the copy of the letter, Ms Mayawati said ''I want my government's resolve to be conveyed to the Centre through media that my party is in favour of the division of UP.'' She however, made it clear that the state government could only send the proposal and it was the prerogative of the Centre to take a decision. ''Since, the state government has sent its proposal, the ball is now in the court of the Centre to decide if the separate states could be carved out from Uttar Pardesh,'' she said.

Ms Mayawati, in the past also, has said on many occasion that her government desired the creation of separate three states from UP.

UNI