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Bundelkhand Morcha plans Yatra to Delhi

Photo: Subir Roy

Actor Raja Bundela at a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday.

LUCKNOW: The recurring demand for creation of a separate State of Bundelkhand has gained momentum with the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha announcing an action plan to mobilise support for it. The Morcha has planned an awareness “yatra” from Orchha in Madhya Pradesh to Delhi on November 22, which would be followed by a demonstration in Lucknow this coming January.

The Morcha, which has been spearheading the campaign for the creation of a separate State incorporating seven districts of Uttar Pradesh and 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh since 1989, had recently organised a torchlight procession from Chitrakoot to Delhi on October 3. In the Capital, the activists met the UPA Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and presented her their charter of demands.

The campaign got a boost recently with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati announcing that she would have no hesitation in passing a Vidhan Sabha resolution for the creation of Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh if the Centre agrees to the proposal.

According to film actor Raja Bundela, who heads the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha, the Bundelas (people of Bundelkhand) want freedom from drudgery and a life of penury. Describing the Bundelkhand region as the underbelly of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh , Raja Bundela said the farmers, labourers, students and other sections of society from the region would not prosper until the new State is created.

Stating that smaller States have a future, Raja Bundela said the track record of Maharashtra which was carved out from Gujarat, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had shown that small States prosper. He said the demand for Bundelkhand had been made in 1949, 1955 and 1968 but it was only after the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha came into existence that the demand acquired momentum.

He said he had apprised all the MPs, MLAs and Ministers from the Bundelkhand region cutting across party lines. According to him, the Congress MLA from Jhansi, Pradeep Jain Aditya, will move a resolution on the subject in the forthcoming session of the U.P. Assembly.

About 68 per cent of the 5 crore population of the region lives below the poverty line, Raja Bundela pointed out.

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