The Union Home Ministry has returned the resolution of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly to the State government, seeking more clarifications on a number of issues.
"We have sent back UP's proposal to divide the State and sought reply to eight to nine questions," Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters here on Tuesday.
The Home Ministry has sought clarifications on several key issues before acting on the resolution passed by the UP Assembly in November. The State government has been asked to clarify about the potential capitals of the proposed four states, what will be their boundaries and how it proposes to divide the all India service officers, presently working in Uttar Pradesh, among the four states, official sources said. One of the crucial questions was about the huge debt burden facing Uttar Pradesh.
The Centre also sought to know what was Uttar Pradesh government's plan to divide the pension burden it bears and what will be the revenue sharing arrangements. It also sought clarifications on how the present administrative units of Uttar Pradesh will be divided into the new States.
U.P. Assembly had cleared the motion for splitting the most populous State of the country into four separate States — Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh — in a winter session in November that lasted for just ten minutes. The motion was cleared by voice vote amidst unprecedented pandemonium in the State Assembly and the session was adjourned sine die immediately after passing the resolution.
U.P. Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati who stumped her political rivals ahead of next year’s scheduled Assembly elections by her sudden move has refuted charges that the proposal for division of UP was floated with the aim of getting votes.
