Recently Nagpur witnessed the
referendum for a separate Vidarbha state organized by social organization Janmanch. Around five lakh
people cast their vote at 450 booths across the city. The move regarding ‘Separate
Vidarbha’ sparked me to think over the issue and many thoughts started hovering
in my mind.
After the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre announced the formation of Telangana, immediately
there was spontaneous outburst by the people of the Vidarbha region in
Maharashtra because the State Reorganization Commission had recommended in 1955
that Vidarbha and Telangana should be separate states. Leaders heading the
agitation for a separate Vidarbha agreed to be part of ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’
or United Maharashtra in 1953, when they signed the Nagpur Pact, Vidarbha was
assured of equitable development. But in reality it didn’t happen up to people’s
expectations.
Although Vidarbha is endowed with
mineral and forest wealth, fertile soil and assured rain compared with other parts
of the state, It cannot be denied that the region is economically distressed
and sentimentally quite different from the rest of Maharashtra, famous for the
suicides of cotton farmers. This is despite Vidarbha generating more than 70%
of Maharashtra’s power, 75% cotton, 80% iron ore deposits, 58% forest cover and
having all of its coal deposits.
One reason why there is no
popular agitation for Vidarbha state is that the political leadership of the
region. This condition of Vidarbha is despite the state having had three chief
ministers from the region, including Vasantrao Naik, who held the post for a
record 11 years. Hence for the sake of development of the region in terms of employment,
education and better lifestyle, people over here wants Vidarbha as a separate state.
On the other side, the decision
of new states may help them to grow as an individual but it will result in down
fall of India As a whole. India which is believed to be a symbol of unity,
Integrity and co-operation will lose its image with such decisions. On a
national level, the decision if given in favour of Vidarbha is bound to cause a
ripple effect even as it demolishes the old theory that states should be formed
only on linguistic basis.
So… now… It has became necessity that the government should take
up a serious call on Vidarbha issue and should either develop Vidarbha at a
faster rate or separate it for the sake of its better governance and
development.
Sources: The Indian Express, Wikipedia,
www.mapsofindia.com
- Prateek Aloni
good job prateek..!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aniket for your feedback..:)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't think vidarbha should be separated like telangana as it would be a threat to the nation's integrity. Many small states will again demand seperation for their own benefits. Instead central and state government need to give special status to vidarbha just like they have given to Bihar to improve overall condition of the region. An attention should be given to projects like MIHAN,cargo hub n related industrial growth. Nice article Prateek!
ReplyDeleteGood job prateek, but as usual we nagpurians always feel happy in numbers and not facts, I always feel that vidarbha always lacks in processing raw materials into finished goods. we can observe through history that big industrialist tried their luck in nagpur.
ReplyDeletegetting a raw material in nagpur is easy but finishing it in a polished way is tricky.
Thanks Shrijeet and Sumant dada. :)
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your concern over the issue, what I think is that whatever be the decision of government, it should be in favour of Vidarbha's progress and development.
Pratik, kindly review the grammar. There are repetative words,which confuses the readers. Try not to over emphasize on any single thread. Any single sentence should be able to convey your feelings.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to achive something, despite political compulsion and constraints, great progress has started yeilding satisfaction.
When blogging, try to portray both sides of any coin.never be judgemental, coz our job is to compare not Decide.
Dear Sam,
DeleteThanks a lot for your feedback. In future I'll take care of the suggested measures.