In a move that could have longstanding political ramifications, the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced the formation of three new districts in the country’s most populous state. The move comes ahead of next year’s assembly elections and the ruling BSP’s long-touted claim that a smaller administrative units would would ensure better rule.
Prabuddha Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar and Bhim Nagar would be set up in the western belt of the state, thus set to take UP’s total number of districts up to 75. Chief Minister Mayawati herself made this announcement during a day-long visit of western UP.
Prabuddha Nagar is being carved out of Muzaffar Nagar district. With the inclusion of Shamli and Kairana tehsils from Muzaffar Nagar, the new district will have Shamli, the political nerve-centre of sugarcane farmers, as its headquarters.
Panchsheel Nagar will be formed out of Ghaziabad, Garh Mukteshwar and Hapur. The district will include the newly-set up Daulana tehsils of Ghaziabad bordering Delhi, and will have Hapur as its headquarters.
Bhim Nagar, which is being chiseled out from Moradabad and Badaun, will have Chandausi and Sambhal tehsils of Moradabad and Gunnaur from the two districts. Sambhal will be its headquarters.
The move as no surprise, as all these districts represent the political nerve-centre of leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. His Samajwadi party had opposed the division of UP, even before the 2000 creation of Uttarakhand, on the grounds that the concept of the UP ‘heartland’ which has sent the Prime Minister of India from UP because of its size, would be watered down if UP was divided.
Mayawati has consistently said UP was “too big” to govern. For “administrative reasons”, it was “important” to have “more decentralisation”. So, in 2007, in the run-up to assembly elections, Mayawati even touted the splitting of UP into smaller districts as one of her promises, claiming they would ease the delivery of public services.
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On Wednesday, all the three new districts look set to have a population of between 12 and 15 lakh. “BSP has always been in favour of smaller states,” she said. “In our earlier regimes took we set up new districts and divisions.”
Mayawati said she had favoured trifurcation of the state and had written a letter to the Union government in this regard, but got no answer. However, she has yet to fulfil the long-pending demand of creating Deoband as a separate district. This is a sticky issue for the state’s Muslim and Hindu population.
Harikesh Bahadur, Congress politician from UP, was unsure about the possible political interpretation of the move. Observers say creating more districts will mean the breakup of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s sphere of influence into smaller pockets, and make it easier for Lucknow to wield administration with better control. Moreoever, a coalition with smaller groups like Ajit Singh and small political entities in favour of separate states out of UP would be easier for Mayawati.