Rakhi drive for Bundelkhand

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 14

Ahead of Independence Day, the demand for a separate Bundelkhand state has intensified.

As part of the campaign, over 50,000 women from Bundelkhand would post 'rakhis' to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before August 26 to press for the demand.

Tara Patkar, convener of the Mahoba-based Bundeli Samaj, said over 250 persons in Mahoba had got themselves tonsured for the cause in the last two days.

The indefinite fast of Patkar and Sukhnandan Singh Yadav, former president of the Mahoba Bar Association, has entered 48th day.

Five political parties and 23 organisations across the 14 Bundelkhand districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are backing the demand for a separate Bundelkhand state.

The Uttar Pradesh districts are Jhansi, Banda, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Jalaun and Hamirpur. The districts in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh include Sagar, Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Damoh, Datia and Vidisha.

Patkar said during her campaign, Uma Bharti, Jhansi MP, had promised a separate Bundelkhand state, a promise which was also made by Pradeep Jain Aditya, a Congress candidate and former Union minister, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

He said the division of Bundelkhand in 1956 was illogical, as 70 per cent of the rivers went to Madhya Pradesh and only 30 per cent remained in Uttar Pradesh, adding to the water crisis and famines in the region.

"As the geographical region with the same culture and dialect was divided into two states, there has been lack of coordination in development projects, especially irrigation projects, which have remained incomplete for years," he pointed out.

The lack of political will to implement development schemes in the region has caused much distress to farmers, accelerating an agrarian crisis and resulting in mass migration.

The Mayawati-led BSP government, in 2011, had proposed creation of a separate Bundelkhand state, including seven districts of Uttar Pradesh. But this is not agreeable to the supporters of an independent Bundelkhand, as for them, there can is no concept of a separate Bundelkhand without the Bundelkhand districts of Madhya Pradesh.