UP chef minister Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Centre of trying to deliberately delay the issue of division of Uttar Pradesh into four states.
The chief minister, while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, attacked the Centre for “violating the procedure” and said that asking for details of the state’s division was “meaningless and merely a ploy to delay the issue”.
The Centre, it may be recalled, had sent a letter to the UP government asking it to furnish details related to the boundaries for the proposed states, how the existing civil service cadres would be divided among them; what each new state’s share of the present debt burden will be and also the proposed capital city of each new state.
”It is incorrect to say that the Centre has returned the proposal but there is no doubt that the Centre has followed its old norm of leaking the letter to the media even before it reaches the state government,” she said.
The chief minister pointed out that the Centre’s letter was against the provisions of the Constitution.
“The state has no role to play in the reorganisation or division of states. As per the Constitution, the law has to be passed by Parliament and the state has no role in it. It is Parliament which acts on the issue after seeking permission of the President. The state’s opinion is sought on the proposal and that has already been given several times to the Centre. I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking division of UP in 2007 and then last month, even passed a resolution to facilitate the process,” she said.
Ms Mayawati pointed out that it was now up to the Centre to take the issue to the next level and bring it to Parliament. She said that if the Centre moves forward on reorganising the state then her government will furnish whatever information is required.