Thaindian News

Lucknow, Nov 16 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Wednesday lambasted the entire opposition for terming her move to divide the state as an “election stunt”.

Claiming that she has been raising the demand right from the time she formed her government in 2007, Mayawati attacked the centre for not caring to pay any heed to her repeated letters in this regard. She also sought to point out that there was no Constitutional binding for any state to pass a resolution to initiate the creation of a state.

“Nowhere does the Indian Constitution say that the process of carving out a new state has to be initiated by a state government or by the assembly of the concerned state assembly,” Mayawati said in a statement.

“The national parliament is fully empowered to suo moto initiate the creation of a new state and after passing such a resolution it has to be sent to the president, who may seek the opinion of the concerned state legislature.” she asserted, while citing provisions of Article 3 of the Indian Constitution.

Says Article 3: “Parliament may by law form a new state by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state,” while adding that the parliament can also “increase or decrease the area of any state as also alter the boundaries or even the name of any state in the country”.

Refuting Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh’s oft repeated argument that the matter should first be referred to a State Reorganisation Commission, Mayawati pointed out, “there is no Constitutional binding to initiate the process through the medium of a state reorganization commission either”.

The chief minister also strongly defended her case by adding: “Well, this demand has been pending before the central government for more than three years.”

“Even prior to that I had raised the issue of carving out smaller states out of UP at a public rally on Oct 9, 2007.”

According to her: “I first wrote to the prime minister about the need to create a separate state of Purvanchal way back on March 15, 2008.” Two more letters were sent in this regard. “The first one was sent on Dec 11, 2009 in which I urged the prime minister to adopt the Telangana formula for creation of a separate Bundelkhand and an independent Western UP. The next one followed two days later on Dec 13 in which I renewed my demand for creation of Purvanchal.”