NCP not opposed to separate Vidarbha -- Pachpute

NCP not opposed to separate Vidarbha -- Pachpute
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NAGPUR, SEPT 3: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was not opposed to the formation of a Vidarbha state since it had supported creation of three new smaller states, the party's Maharashtra unit Chief Babanrao Pachpute today said.

``The NCP views are clear but the issue is yet to come up for discussion before the working committee'', Pachpute said.

The question of bringing a resolution in the working committee and subsequently in the forthcoming winter session of the State Legislature was not yet decided, he told a press conference here, attended by NCP Ministers from Vidarbha in the Vilasrao Deshmukh Ministry -- Datte Meghe, N P Hirani, Subhash Thakre, Anil Deshmukh -- and chairman of statutory development board of Vidarbha Harshwardhan Deshmukh.

Meghe said the NPC legislators would certainly bring a resolution in the Assembly. He said 58 NCP MLAs would be urged to extend support to the resolution.

``If the major ruling partner Congress brings official resolution, the job will be much easier,'' he felt. The NCP leadership would be pressurised on the issue, Meghe added.

Pachpute said the national convention of the party will discuss political, economic, industrial, information technology and foreign affairs resolution and will come out with a foreign policy during the Nagpur session.

Statehood for Vidarbha-- a mirage or reality

Meanwhile, political observers feel that the demand for Vidarbha, whether turns into a reality or remains a mirage depends largely on the will of political leadership of the region and the wishes of local residents.

Though the demand for Vidarbha with Nagpur as its capital is over three decades old and has the backing of all major political parties in Maharashtra barring the Shiv Sena, it has failed to make much headway, observers note.

Initially, the separate Vidarbha movement was led by leaders like Loknayak Bapuji Aney and Brijlal Biyani, who caught the fancy of the locals promising all round development of the backward region once it gets separate statehood.

Later, former deputy chief minister Nashikrao Tirpude, Shankarrao Gedam and Jambuwantrao Dhote led the movement with little or no success.

The agitation, which received response of the common man initially, fizzled out later after the people realised futility in the promises of political leadership, the observers said.

However, there are two schools of thought over the issue. One led by former Maharashtra minister Dr Shrikant Jichkar advocating non-feasibility of Vidarbha as a state saying the proposal was not viable economically, the other comprising senior Congress and BJP leaders said viability was not the criterion for carving out a new state.

Defending his view, Jichkar said Vidarbha would not be economically viable and described it as ``highly deficit area''.

A committee, headed by noted economist Dr D M Dandekar, which submitted its report in 1984, covering backlog of nine sectors including roads, irrigation, education and health.

According to former Maharashtra minister of state for finance Madhukar Kimmatkar, who is now a member of Vidarbha Statutory Development Board, ``As per the Dandekar committee recommendations, 85 per cent of total plan funds of Maharashtrashould have been utilised for development of Vidarbha but it was not done.

``Backlog of Vidarbha is 39 per cent of total backlog ofstate. It could have taken just three years to remove the regional imbalance if the committee recommendations were sincerely implemented in that period,'' he adds.