Recent agitation for Telengana state and sudden announcement by Central Government for creation of a separate State of Telengana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh made me think if smaller states are good or would they be fueling political ambitions till we have 1000 states.
We already have demands for Mithilanchal, Coorg, Saurashtra, GorkhaLand, Bundelkhand, Bhojpur, Cooch Behar, Vidharbha, Haripradesh, Maju pradesh and many more to follow.
I am for smaller states for better administration. But Can we have micro states with few sq kms?. I fear politicians for their political ambitions are using divide and rule policy and would take up these issues than issues that are important to people.
We cannot build house without foundation. It would collapse. So will smaller state, if they are divided without enough ground work and are based on political ambitions of few people. If a person sits on hunger strike and a state can be carved out, we end up in blackmail tactics and would end up with micro states. This should be stopped.
Smaller states are beneficial for better administration. As population is increasing so are problems. There are remote places of state where people have to travel 1000 of KMS to reach capital to get their problems solved. People from hills have to make audacious journey down hill to reach capital.
But it also comes with its own problems.
Smaller states will be weak in terms of lobbying power at center. This is good for Center, We need India to be stronger than the states. But this should not end up with weak states and weak center.
Smaller states will be additional burden of administration, but I feel (though I am not an expert) it should be minimal as we already have district level and mandal level administrative centers in many states. So there could only a minimal one time overhead which if states formed effectively, the new states and center can and should bare.
For better formation of states we need a better foundation. Though there could be more solutions I feel the solutions should be centered around stability of governments at state, to quell the political ambitions and end formation of micro states.
Following are some suggestions.
1. All top posts like Prime minister ship, Presidency, Governors, Chief minister, Top ministries should have fixed tenure. Two terms or 10 years which ever is earlier.
The Grass root level political worker should have some hope of reaching top. They should look within than opt for divide an rule policy (I think politicians would twist this and make exceptions as they have their wife, children, nephew who will be promoted for the same post. This is problem of internal party democracy which is another topic altogether)
2. If a MLA or MLC wants to shift parties he has to resign. We need to repeal 1/3 split of the party. If a elected member( based on party) opts to leave part he needs to go back to people for taking this decision. He need to go back to the people. He cannot make this decision unilaterally. (I think this is already there, I am not sure. But it needs to be strengthened further for better stability of elected governments in smaller states)
3. States cannot be smaller than 15 to 20 Members of Parliament(exception being northeastern states or states formed before year 2000). They should have better say in Parliament
4. The state boundaries should be as straight lines as possible and capital city as reachable as possible from far corners. States should not be based any language, religion, community etc. It should be based on equal division of natural resources.
Each state should have basic resources like water, some natural resources to bank on. This policy should avoid future inter state disputes over places and resources.
5. Each person who stays at a place for more than six months should be considered domicile of that state for next couple of years. There should be no attachment or pride of being son of soil. He should be considered citizen of India and nothing more than that. He should feel at home at any part of the country. With better administration of smaller states, most of them would, in long run, be better places with good opportunities; thereby reducing the migration of rural population to urban centers.
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