Govt picks holes in Mayawati's divide-UP plan

Home ministry sends eight-point questionnaire to Maya seeking details of plan. Aloke Tikku reports. Carve UP | Reorganisation of states: nuts & bolts

Lobbing Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati’s plan to divide the state into four back into her court, the home ministry has sent her an eight-point questionnaire seeking details of her proposal including how she will split the civil service.

The ministry also wants to know how the state’s assets and financial liabilities would be shared between the four entities, the economic and financial feasibility of the four states and the names of cities which would become the capitals.

“We have sent back UP’s proposal to divide the state and have sought replies to eight to nine questions,” union home secretary RK Singh said.

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On November 15, Mayawati had announced the plan to divide UP into Purvanchal, Pashchim Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Awadh Pradesh. Within a week, she had pushed a resolution through the state assembly asking the Centre to carve the four states out of UP.

The move was considered a masterstroke ahead of the polls next year. The four-line resolution had landed in the home ministry on November 23.

The UPA had considered sending the proposal back to the state for a fresh mandate by the new assembly once it was constituted, but dropped the idea because it could give Mayawati a chance to target the alliance. There is no legal bar on an outgoing assembly from passing any law or resolution.

Moreover, it was felt an over-emphasis on lack of political consensus on the resolution at this stage could be politically risky. Government sources indicated the questionnaire would now make the state do its homework on its proposed division — a task that cannot be completed in a matter of weeks.

Splitting the finances and civil service is one of the trickiest parts of dividing a state. Officials said the Centre still had to convene meetings to resolve disputes in this context between Bihar and Jharkhand.