JOIN USWith Telangana movement nearing culmination, the decades-old simmering Vidarbha state demand has reignited with social activists, intellectuals and political leaders from the region forming a joint action committee and deciding to hold a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on August 5.
Apart from holding staging a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the pro-Vidarbha leaders have also decided to intensify their agitation in the region by organising dharna in all the 11 districts; an Vidarbha bandh is also being organised. Talking to Deccan Herald from Nagpur over the phone, Vidarbha Jan AndolanSamiti (VJAS) leader and farmland activists, Kishore Tiwari said, “Our demand is older than Telangana.
Our region because of the indifference of political leaders in Mumbai and western Maharashtra has become fields of death. Everyday we hear of farmers and tribals committing suicide. We want that Vidarbha should be handed over to Vidarbha people and we don't want rulers in the far-off Mumbai to run and ruin our lives.”
Citing history of Vidarbha region, a British commissioner in 1888 had proposed a creation of separate Vidarbha province, and in “the Akola Pact in 1947 it was agreed to create two separate states for Marathi speaking people. one Vidarbha and the second included other areas of the present day Maharashtra.