Bhojpuri speaking Purvanchal state to comprise of 22 districts?

Ahead of seven phase election that will commence from February 4, 2012, Uttar Pradesh Assembly has passed a resolution to split the state into four states-Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. She had proposed to carve Purvanchal in 2007. Bhojpuri speaking Purvanchal will comprise of 22 eastern districts adjoining Bhojpuri speaking districts of Bihar. At some stage both these regions will have to merged. The oting for the assembly election will conclude on February 28, 2012.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has supported Mayawati's stand to carve out four new states from UP saying, "We are, in principle, in favour of formation of smaller states...We have been a votary of smaller states for fostering a new era of development."

Voting in Purvanchal is likely to be supportive of Mayawati because of her support for the creation of a new state.

Purvanchal is a geographic region of north-central India, which comprises the eastern end of Uttar Pradesh state. It is bounded by Nepal to the north, Bihar state to the east, Bagelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh state to the south, the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh to the west. Purvanchal comprises three divisions – Awadhi region in the west, Bhojpuri region in the east and the Baghelkhand region in the south.

Indian freedom fighter Mangal Pandey was born in Purvanchal's Nagwa village in Ballia on 19 July 1827 and was executed on 8th April 1857 at Barrackpore, Kolkata. He was a sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Regiment of the Bengala Native Infantry (BNI) of the English East India Company.

The area of Purvanchal state gave four Prime Ministers to India - Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar. The land is favourable for agriculture but lack of resources has kept the area backward for years.

Its population is 7.653 crore. Its per capita income is Rs 9,288.12. It will provide 32 Lok Sabha seats and 150 assembly seats.

The names of districts are as under:
Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Mau, Ballia, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Siddharth Nagar, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Sant Ravidas Nagar-Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Chandauli

Purvanchal area is represented by 23 Members of Parliament to the lower house of Indian Parliament, and 117 legislators in the 403 member Uttar Pradesh state assebly or Vidhan Sabha.

Menwhile, the Congress-led UPA government has returned the proposal to split UP into four parts saying that it has been "poorly drafted". This has thrown the ball back into the court of UP chief minister. UP assembly had passed a resolution on state's division on November 21.

The Union home ministry has raised eight questions over the state government proposal including the economic feasibility of the entire exercise. It has asked about the boundaries of the four proposed states, districts, capitals, district-wise population and area, number of IAS officers in each state, how existing administrative units will be divided and what will be the revenue sharing criterion between the states.

Home ministry has asked how the state's huge debt burden will be divided. According to CAG report, the state government has spent around 97% of the funds raised though borrowings towards the payment of its debts, which are exceeding over Rs 1,80,000 crore. Reports also suggested that UP's public debt is likely to touch Rs 2,04,000 crore in 2011-12 against Rs 1,80,000 in 2010-11.

Sources in the UP government has said home ministry letter is part of bureaucratic interaction, "It's not the case of ministry of home affairs (MHA) rejecting the proposal, rather the correspondence is requesting some added clarifications on the state division proposal and that would be provided within due course".

The "UP reorganisation proposal' is being opposed by most of UP's opposition parties although it is meant for better administration and development. Mayawati cited the example of Telangana and accused the Congress of fooling people demanding separate statehood. BJP has been saying that the division of the state should be done through the State Organisation Commission. Rashtriya Lok Dal which had supported division of UP has joined the UPA government.