From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 41, Dated 15 Oct 2011
CURRENT AFFAIRS
UTTAR PRADESH
Divide and Rule. That is Maya's Mantra
Mayawati's creation of new districts is a political game that serves
no productive end, reports Virendra Nath Bhatt
Political theatre Announcements are usually made in huge rallies to gain mileage
Political theatre Announcements are usually made in huge rallies to gain mileage
MAYAWATI IS back at her old game: bifurcation of districts. On 28
September, she added three more districts — Hapur, Shamli and Sambhal
— to the existing 72. This was done under the archaic Uttar Pradesh
Land Revenue Act, 1901.
The idea is to strengthen the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by giving an
impression of meeting people's aspirations, particularly in areas
where political rivals like the Gandhi family, Mulayam Singh Yadav and
Kalyan Singh have a strong footing. The larger gameplan is to pave the
way for trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh so that her party can rule in
all three states.
In the past, Auriyya was carved out of Etawah district, the home turf
of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Similarly, Kannauj was carved out of
Farrukhabad district. The Kannauj Lok Sabha seat is held by none other
than Mulayam's son, Akhilesh Yadav.
Will these tactics work? "Creating three new districts in western UP,
considered to be the bastion of Ajit Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal, will
certainly be a blow to the Jat leader," said a political analyst. BSP
had fared badly here in the 2007 Assembly polls, winning only 63 seats
and losing close to 150.
However, the creation of districts did not work as planned. One such
exercise was undertaken in 2002, after Priyanka Gandhi visited
Sangrampur police station of Sultanpur district, falling within the
Amethi Parliamentary constituency represented by AICC General
Secretary Rahul Gandhi. She went to the police station to get an FIR
lodged by Rambhajan, a Dalit whose house was demolished by local
toughs.
Mayawati, then heading a BSP-BJP coalition, was outraged over the move
and took it as an attempt by the Congress to make inroads into her
vote bank.
She decided to hit back, announcing a new district comprising of five
Assembly segments falling within the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. Two
Assembly segments — Salon and Tiloi in Rae Bareli district — were
represented by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Mayawati named the new
district Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar. Gauriganj in Sultanpur
district, falling in the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, was chosen as
the district headquarters.
But when the BSP-BJP government fell in August 2003, Mulayam Singh
Yadav succeeded Mayawati and soon the government's notification for
the creation of the new district was revoked. Undaunted, Mayawati
restored the district in 2010 after becoming CM for the fourth time in
2007.
So far, in her four tenures as CM, Mayawati has created 21 districts.
In her first tenure, two were added. During her second term in 1997,
she created 14 new districts. Her third tenure in 2002-03 yielded only
one district and during her present tenure she has created four more.
"Mayawati is taking the people for a ride by announcing more and more
districts," says Ambika Chowdhary, senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader
and former revenue minister, who led from the front during Mulayam
Singh Yadav's regime (2003-07) for scrapping the new districts created
by Mayawati. "After all, where are the huge funds required for
creating the physical infrastructure and huge recurring expenditure in
appointing state employees for the new districts?" asks Chowdhary.
But it is not that simple, as several SP MLAs had rebelled against the
party leadership over the decision to scrap the districts. The
Allahabad High Court had also quashed the order and had upheld the
creation of new districts.
Sorry State
In Gauriganj, district HQ of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, most
officials don't have proper offices.
•The social welfare officer operates from a hostel for Dalit students.
•The district magistrate (DM) has taken over the office of the tehsil.
•The chief development officer sits in the seed and fertiliser store
of the agriculture department.
•The chief medical officer (CMO) has occupied a room in the primary
health centre (PHC).
•The Superintendent of Police (SP) operates from a vacant building of the PHC.
•The district police lines occupies a small yard at Amethi of the
agricultural produce marketing board.
• The inspector of schools has occupied two classrooms of a girls
college, causing inconvenience to the girls and their harassment.
• The Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), looking after primary education,
has occupied the building of a junior high school. The civil court is
proposed to be opened in this building and the office of the BSA is to
be shifted into the adjacent primary school.
Finding a residence is an equally big problem.
• The DM lives in the inspection bungalow of the PWD.
•The SP has occupied a small residential building of the Jal Nigam.
•The ADM and additional SP live in guest house of a cement factory of
a prominent company.
•The SDM has found refuge in a room in Navodaya Vidyalaya.
•The CMO lives in a room of the PHC.
•Other officers live in nearby Sultanpur or Rai Bareli towns and
shuttle daily to Gauriganj.
•Other departments operate from Sultanpur or Rai Bareli. But since
even old districts lack basic offices, who is worried? Certainly not
Mayawati.
Raja Bundela, who is also famous for his acting roles in Hindi cinema,
heads the Bundelkhand Congress, a fledgling political outfit that is
spearheading the movement for the creation of Bundelkhand state in UP
and Madhya Pradesh. He is not entirely against the creation of new
districts. "Ultimately, it will strengthen the case for the division
of UP, leading to the creation of Bundelkhand," says Bundela. "But the
recent announcement does not enthuse us. Mayawati is addressing
immediate political concerns — the 2012 Assembly polls. It was she who
first raised the issue of trifurcation of UP, then Rahul Gandhi also
pitched in but both did nothing to take the issue to its logical
conclusion.''
The UP government claims that the new districts have been created
after due diligence and to address the problem encountered in
administration of big districts where the population has grown
manifold in the past decades.
"The UP government, in February 1989, had constituted a permanent
high-powered committee headed by the chairman of the Board of Revenue,
to consider the proposals for the creation of new districts and
divisions with the aim of making the administration at the field level
more efficient and effective,'' says KK Sinha, principal secretary of
the revenue department. The revenue department is in charge of land
management, land revenue and administration from district to tehsil
(subdivision) level. "The districts have been created with the
approval of the committee," Sinha adds.
But this stretches credibility. Even while heading the coalition
government with the BJP in 1997, Mayawati had made Hathras tehsil of
Aligarh district a full-fledged district, naming it Mahamaya Nagar
after Lord Buddha's mother. Aligarh is the home district of the then
BJP satrap Kalyan Singh who, soon after becoming chief minister in
September 1997, scrapped the district.
Even after Kalyan Singh left the BJP, the animosity remains. Kalyan
Singh is currently the MP from Etah. In July 2009, Mayawati upgraded
the Kasganj tehsil of Etah district to district level and named it
Kanshiram Nagar.
The saga continues.
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