CWC urged not to ignore Vidarbha along with Telangana

CWC urged not to ignore Vidarbha along with Telangana

Nagpur, Jul 21,2013

Kishore Tiwari President of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), an activity group working for farmer ad tribal welfare today urged CWC chairperson and UPA convener Sonia Gandhi not to ignore issue Vidarbha when they are taking final call to separate Telangana from Andhra as Vidarbha is classic example of complete apathy and colonization  as tribal and distressed debt trapped farmers  denied food ,shelter, education, employment  and health cares where farmers killing themselves @ 8 hourly and malnourish tribal’s are dying  due starvation ,the region has been graveyard and some of places are worst than Somalia hence we request CWC to not to ignore  their stand over separate vidrabha   to save 2 billion population who are under  illumination process.CWC has been asked to see the present backlog and socio-economic condition of region which lowermost human value index and making vidrabha dodes not need parliament reffrendum too as most of parties in UPA and BJP is supporting the demand.  

CWC has been recalled the history of  pending demand of vidrabh since 1903 as till the defeat of Raghuji II of Bhonsla dynasty by the Britishers in 1817, Vidarbha was an independent kingdom with Nagpur as Capital. It is said that in 1888, the then British Commissioner had proposed creation of separate Vidarbha Province. In 1903, A week before the Independence of India, the Congress Party Leaders in the Marathi speaking areas of the then C.P. & Berar and Maharashtra entered in to an agreement known as “Akola Pact” on 8th of August, 1947 (Annexure–A). In the Akola Pact it was agreed to establish two separate States of Marathi speaking people, one Vidarbha and second – Rest of Marathi speaking areas of Maharashtra. This pact also agreed to have two separate Legislative Assemblies, separate judiciary, separate Ministry but under one Governor.  In 1948, Dar Commission while discussing the reorganization of States said in its Report recommended Vidrabh state  after that States Reorganization Commission (SRC) under the Chairmanship of Justice Fazal Ali with Shri Hridhyanath Kunjaru and Shri Sardar Panikkar as Members was set up in Dec 1953, known as “Fazal Ali Commission” to examine the reorganisation of the States in the country. The Commission gave its report in 1955 and recommended formation of separate State of Vidarbha on various grounds. The recommendation of the Commission regarding separate State of Vidarbha, which is contained in Chapter VIII of the report, is enclosed as (Annexure C). The salient features are:i) Vidarbha’s traditional financial surplus continues. It may be crore and half of rupees or possibly more. In view of the satisfactory position of Vidarbha and since Maharashtra without grater Bombay is likely to be a deficit area on revenue account to very much greater extent, there is some reluctance to join Maharashtra. There seems to be prima facie clarification for the suspicion that if Vidarbha joins Maharashtra, it cannot be certain that its resources will be spent within its area on suitable development schemes and projects.and There was the fear that Nagpur will be completely over shadowed by the Bombay City, which would be the natural capital of a single Maharashtrian State, if it were created, However, for political reasons, the recommendations of “Fazal Ali Commission” were not accepted and on the contrary efforts were made to give legal status to the Nagpur agreement and also assurances to the people of Vidarbha that their interest in one Marathi speaking State of Maharashtra would be safe-guarded. The Constitution of India was amended in November 1956 and a new Article 371(2) was incorporated, enabling the President of India under article 371(2) to provide for special responsibility of Governor of Maharashtra for the establishment of development Boards for Vidarbha responsibilities ensuring equitable allocation of funds for development expenditure over the areas subject to the requirement of the State as a whole and Equitable arrangement for providing adequate facilities for technical education and vocational training and also adequate opportunities for employment in the  but it failed since formation of Maharashtra hence there is need for reconstruction Maharashtra ,Tiwari added.

It is fact that all 11 districts of western vidarbha are till under the grip of agrarian crisis coupled massive natural calamities , tribal starvation deaths followed by the organized exploitation of illiterate farmers at the hands of unscrupulous moneylenders and hence creation of vidrabha is need of hour . Tiwari said .