After Telangana, now demand for Vidarbha gains momentum
Nagpur, July 30: With the UPA government likely to concede the demand for creation of Telangana state, the call for carving out a separate Vidarbha state out of Maharashtra has started gaining heat.
Staunch
protagonist
of
Vidarbha
state,
former
BJP
MP
Banwarilal
Purohit,
who
formed
a
political
outfit
for
fighting
for
the
cause,
told
PTI
that
his
party
had
passed
a
resolution
in
its
Bhubneshwar
executive
committee
in
1992
supporting
separate
Vidarbha.
Now,
the
BJP
should
convince
its
alliance
partner
Shiv
Sena
to
concede
the
demand,
he
said.
The
issue
(of
creating
separate
Vidarbha)
has
been
raised
at
appropriate
forum
many
times
in
the
past,
Congress
MP
from
Nagpur
Vilas
Muttemwar
said.
A group of pro-Vidarbha leaders, including former director general of police Prabir Chakraborty, former MLA Wamanrao Chatap along with Deepak Nilawar, Ahmed Kadar (of pro-Vidarbha group) and Ram Newle from Shetkari Sanghatana, will hold a sit-in agitation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on August 5 to press for the demand, Chakraborty said.
Two Congress stalwarts and former Union ministers N K P Salve and Vasant Sathe (both hailing from Vidarbha) had raised the issue some years back and also sat on an indefinite strike in city.
Also, the then Union Labour Minister P A Sangma, who was sent on a mission by Rajiv Gandhi to study the prospect of creating Vidarbha, had indicated positively, but some how it could not be done, a senior leader said on condition of anonymity.
An all-party bandh demanding separate Vidarbha had also been organised in the region about two years back, sources said.
A prominent city-based NGO, Vidarbha Economic development Council (VED), has also strongly demanded carving out Vidarbha from Maharashtra.
During the last 50 years, Maharashtra "failed to develop Vidarbha region" and, therefore, under article 371 (2) of the Constitution of India, to remove regional imbalance the Statutory Development Board was set up, VED chairman Devendra Parekh said.
The board failed to correct the imbalance, as is evident from the HR Index, per capita income table and gross district product table, published by GoM in its annual survey of state economy in 2009, it said.
Since
the
constitutional
remedy
has
failed
in
bringing
economic
development
in
Vidarbha,
making
it
a
separate
state
is
the
only
solution
and
the
demand
is
more
than
justified,
he
said.
Vidarbha
presently
produces
4,500
MW
power
and
another
10,000
MW
is
in
the
pipeline.
The
surplus
power
can
be
converted
into
a
multi-crore
advantage
since
the
region's
own
consumption
is
2,000
MW,
Parekh
said.
Situated in central India and eastern region of Maharashtra state, Vidarbha consists of 11 districts, including Nagpur, Amravati, Akola, Wardha, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia and Bhandara, Buldhana and Yavatmal.
The region's largest city Nagpur is famous for orange and cotton cultivation.
Vidarbha holds two-thirds of Maharashtra's mineral resources, three quarters of its forest resources, and is a net producer of power.
Though rich in minerals, coal, forests and mountains, this region has been underdeveloped and has seen a spurt in suicides by thousands of farmers in the last decade owing to poor living conditions.
PTI