A day after the UPA decided to carve Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday favoured reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh saying the "current structure" of the state is "ungovernable" from the administrative point of view.
"Purely from an administrative point of view, a state of over 200 million people, 72 districts, over 800 blocks, It's just not governable. It is my personal view, Its politics is a separate issue," he said, adding, "Telangana was not an administrative decision. It had a political context."
"If a debate on reorganisation of states is to be held, priority should be given to reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh. Because, the current structure of UP is ungovernable," he said reiterating his stand on the issue opposed by ruling Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Ramesh's comments came hours after BSP chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati renewed her demand for splitting the country's biggest state into four.
Congress sources said that the issue of bifurcation of UP was included in the Congress's UP assembly election manifesto.
Favouring the bifurcation of UP, the manifesto had said, "If the Congress comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, it will ask the Centre to appoint a Second States Reorganisation Commission to look into and address the issues appropriately."
Citing his experience during his last week's visit to Unnao which witnessed six district magistrates in 12 months, Ramesh said, "The size of UP and the administrative and the political interference in the administration are destroying UP.
No Chief Minister would know the names of 72 districts by heart. "Bihar has been reorganised. Madhya Pradesh has been reorganised. Reorganisation of UP is long overdue. Western UP, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand, Avadh."
The previous Mayawati government had got a controversial resolution passed in the State Assembly on splitting Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states.
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