The Vidarbha movement includes
political activities organised by various individuals, organizations and
political parties, for creation of an independent state of Vidarbha,
within the Republic of India. The proposed state corresponds to the
eastern 11 districts of the state of Maharashtra.
BACKGROUND
The following events led to the later movement:
·
·
1853: After British conquests
from Mughals and Marathas in central India, in 1853
the Nagpur Province was formed with Nagpur as capital. It
was administered by a commissioner under the central government.
·
1861: Central Province (CP) was formed by Britishers
with Nagpur as capital, in the year 1861, after merging some more north-eastern
areas into it, such as Chhindawara and Chhattisgadh.
·
1903: On 1 October, Berar was also placed under the
administration of the commissioner of Central Provinces. It was then named
as Central Province and Berar.
·
1935: The Government of India Act, passed by British Parliament
formed a provincial assembly, providing for an election. "CP and
Berar" was kept a separate entity, with Nagpur as capital.
·
1938: The CP and Berar assembly passed a resolution for creation
of the separate Vidarbha State unanimously, at Nagpur on 1 October
1938.
·
1950: When the Constitution of India went into effect
in 1950, "CP and Berar" became Madhya Pradesh, with Nagpur as
capital.
STATEHOOD
DEMAND
- The Vidarbha region is nationally
distinguished and geographically very distant from the state
capital, Mumbai.
- Vidarbha is also historically different,
culturally distinct, politically distracted, economically distressed and
sentimentally quite different from western Maharashtra but was
always dominated by it.
- The demand for a separate state of Vidarbha
was raised for the first time over 100 years ago.
- As a result of which, the Central Provinces
legislature passed a unanimous resolution to create a separate state
of Mahavidarbha on 1 October 1938 at Nagpur, much before the
demand for a "Samyukta Maharashtra" was even conceived.
After merger with the new state of Maharashtra, the demand of
separate statehood was raised time and again, with an economic view, quoting
the increasing developmental backlog.
STATE
REORGANIZATION COMMISSION
- The Government of India appointed the first State Reorganisation Committee (SRC) under Chairmanship of Fazal Ali on 29 December 1953.
- Vidarbhite leaders at that time, like M S Aney and Brijlal Biyani, submitted a memorandum to State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) for a separate Vidarbha State.
- Bharatratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had also favoured a "One state - One language" principle for reorganisation of states. Accordingly, he submitted his views about forming at least 2 separate states of Marathi-speaking people, instead of a single large state of Maharashtra. As per his opinion, one state should have one language but at the same time, there can be two or more separate states of one language, depending upon the need for efficient administration, geographic and historical need and sentiments of local people. He had clearly favoured "Vidarbha State" with Nagpur as capital, saying, "Single government can not administer such a huge state as United Maharashtra."
The Fazal Ali SRC, after considering these memoranda and all
other related aspects, favoured a separate Vidarbha State with Nagpur
as capital in the year 1956.
- But even after the recommendation of SRC
headed by Fazal Ali, under the influence of
western Maharashtra congress leaders, Vidarbha was made part of
the new state of Maharashtra in 1960 by the central government, favouring
the "One language - One state" principle and Nagpur city lost
the capital status.
- Nagpur thus became the only city in
independent India, which lost "state capital status" after
historically being a capital of the biggest state of India (by area) for
more than 100 years.
NAGPUR PACT
The 1953 Nagpur Pact assures equitable development of all the
regions of the proposed Marathi State. Most prominent clause of the Nagpur
Pact was: one session of Maharashtra state assembly in Nagpur city every
year, with minimum six weeks duration, to discuss issues exclusively related to
Vidarbha.
 |
The signatories to the pact in 1953 were:
· Yashwantrao Chavan, then Minister in
Morarji Desai ministry of Bombay State
·
Ramrao Krishnarao Patil, Gandhian, Ex
ICS Officer and member of first Planning Commission.
MERGER WITH
MAHARASHTRA
On 1 May 1960, the Vidarbha state, favoured by Fazal Ali SRC,
was merged with a newly formed Maharashtra State, under the
agreement Nagpur Pact.
POST MERGER
DEVELOPMENTS
- The Vidarbha region under new Maharashtra
state continued to suffer in development.
- This gave impetus to the demand of more
equitable development of all regions of Maharashtra.
- The area supplies raw material in the form of
electricity, minerals, rice and cotton to the more-developed western
Maharashtra.
- People of the Vidarbha area find themselves
600–1,000 kilometres (400–600 mi) away from the state
capital, Mumbai, and have a feeling of this region being a colony of
western Maharashtra.
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Under these circumstances, the Maharashtra Government appointed
a committee, to study regional imbalances in Maharashtra. The committee found
that:
"The failure to report to the state assembly every year in
terms of the Nagpur Agreement, has been a serious lapse on the part of the
state Government. If a report had been made to state legislature, as per the
Nagpur Agreement, the matter would have received sustained attention. In the
circumstances this did not happen."
Vijay Kelkar committee report on balanced regional development in Maharashtra
 |
The high-level Vijay Kelkar committee on balanced regional
development in Maharashtra lays a clear road map for speedy and effective
development of Vidarbha and Marathwada, the two regions lagging far behind rest
of Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai). For removing the disparities, it has made
146 recommendations and also formulated a model for financial allocation that
aims to remove the irrigation backlog in next eight years and that of other
sectors like health, education and connectivity by the end of the 14th plan or
say the next 12 years.
- It has also recommended shifting of the state secretariat (Mantralaya) to Nagpur, the state's second capital, for the month of December every year.
- The committee has said that Vidarbha should get autonomous status on the lines of Meghalaya. The north-eastern state was granted an autonomous status in 1969, when it was a part of Assam, by the 24th constitutional amendment..
- The autonomous status can be an alternative for separate statehood for the region (which a section of the local population has been demanding), the report says, adding that all the important finance-related portfolios should be allocated to the leaders from Vidarbha.
- The people of Vidarbha feel that issues of the region are neglected and the Mumbai-headquartered government metes out a step-motherly treatment to them, it notes.
- The Mantralaya should be shifted to Nagpur from Mumbai from December 1 to 31 every year, and as a part of follow-up of 'Nagpur pact' (whereby Vidarbha leaders agreed to merger of the region within Maharashtra in 1960), some of the major directorates should be shifted to Aurangabad and Nagpur, the committee has said.
- It also says that all the pending irrigation projects in Vidarbha should be completed on a priority basis.
- It recommends that the overall regional financial allocation percentage of rest of Maharashtra (RoM) be brought down from the current 58% to 41.45%. It recommends raising the allocations of Vidarbha from 23.03% to 33.24% and that of Marathwada to 25.31% from the current 18.15%.
- Among several such practical measures that would ensure speedy development, the report has also recommended that political power (resource rich ministries) be equally distributed among the three regions instead of being concentrated in RoM, in a way blaming this for the imbalance. The report also cites official figures to stress that in last 15 years Vidarbha and Marathwada witnessed declining per capital incomes while RoM recorded impressive growth.
- The report has suggested several measures like providing cheaper power in generating areas of Vidarbha in addition to tax cuts and capital at lower rates to attract industrialization in Vidarbha. The board also suggests strengthening of development boards by restructuring them.
- Each board should be headed by the chief minister with a senior minister and some elected representatives as members while a senior officer of additional chief secretary be entrusted planning and supervising its work of making annual plan and five year perspective plan for the region.
- Though not part of recommendations, but in the chapter on
perspectives of stakeholders, it records views like demand for autonomy
for Vidarbha or sentiments aired in support of creating a separate state,
if the government is unable to remove the injustice of underdevelopment
and deprivation.
