(News) Centre’s nod for Telangana stirs up Bundelkhand issue

Centre’s nod for Telangana stirs up Bundelkhand issue

“Unfortunately, funds have often not been put to productive use. Moreover, the 27 MLAs belonging to the region have no say in the development initiative," said Mr. Bundela.

The Centre’s initiative on the creation of Telangana State appears to have given a fillip to the longstanding demand for creation of Bundelkhand State. The Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha is set to launch a ‘padayatra’ from Kamtanath temple in Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh to Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh on December 16.

The ‘padayatris’ aim to cover 300 km by the time the march ends in Khajuraho on January 1, 2010.

This would be followed by a “kisan mahapanchayat" in Orchha (Madhya Pradesh) on January 26.

The Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha has been at the vanguard of the movement for creation of Bundelkhand State by carving out seven districts of Uttar Pradesh and 12 of Madhya Pradesh. The seven U.P. districts of the backward Bundelkhand region of the State are Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot and Banda.

Though the convenor of the Morcha, cinema and TV actor Raja Bundela, said on Thursday that the people’s march for Bundelkhand had been planned earlier, he admitted that the demand would gather momentum following the Centre’s nod for Telangana State.

"Ours would be a peaceful march through which the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha will intimate the Centre as well as the State governments about the need to create a separate State. Financial package alone is not going to solve the magnitude of the problems faced by the people of the region," Raja Bundela told The Hindu over phone.

Issues ranging from Bundelkhand’s backwardness, miseries in the wake of the drought and forced migration of the people have dominated the politics of the region with both the Congress and the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party locked in a battle of political hegemony. [..] READ MORE
 

Courtesy: The Hindu