India is a family of people with diverse cultural beliefs and ethnic origins.India is an indestructible union of destructible states which is defined under part I-article 3 of the constitution.Since we have adopted the federal structure of U.S.A ,we have smaller administrative units called "States" with a strong centre called "Union".
States are geographically demarcated areas with people of common origin,sect,community,culture,language and so on,lookin back at the history of our country , we have been demarcating areas based on their linguistic criterion.for eg.,Gujarat and Maharashtra ;Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. on the basis of ethnicity-Goa and the North East.States are smaller administrative units which work together in achieving the national goal, since,the control and coordination of vast area will not get equal attention and there wouldn't be equal representation of people in fulfilling their political aspirations to make there voices heard in the national arena.
We have people like Rabindranath Tagore who professed 'Universal Brotherhood' and Gandhiji who always believed - power vested in people's hand i.e.,effective panchayathi raj institutions and local self governments at the grass root level.
We have agitations going on in various parts of our country for formation of seperate states,to name a few-Coorg out of Karnataka,Telangana out of Andhra pradesh.Gorkhaland out of Westbengal.The demand for new state arises when people of particular region are excluded from various political ,economical and social policies of the government which when provided to these people ameliorates the poverty prevalent and improves their standard of living.This would in turn increase the growth of a particular area and a feeling that they are walking side by side, than behind anyone in this fast moving world , instills in them a sense of pride which keeps them happy.
The demand for seperate state when granted will have both pros and cons.There shall be effective implementation of policies designed by centre and when states are created on the basis of a particular criterion,then the decentralisation of powers will be easy.Also there shall be proper representation of the people at the policy framing levels ,which in turn would help them in framing policies which are in tandem with national goal. And when it comes to representation of people in the global front ,the Cheif Minister of the newly created state can sign MoUs with various MNCs to invest in the otherwise neglected areas which in turn increases the economic activity.
The major challenge to both the centre and the state lies in the distribution of All India service employees between the states who are in the policy executing stage,fulfilling the national targets like NREGA,NRHM,Bharath Nirman,NRLM ,RKVY and so on and the international targets like UNs-Millenium developmental goals.We have examples of Jharkand and Chattisgarh where the latter is improving day by day with effective programes like the best PDS model in our country and the former even though being economically stable is still not able to acheive things in an efficient way.Smaller states are necessary in the areas of north east because they show a different challenge in administering those particular regions like the hilly terrain and hence the lack of proper connectivity.
Agitations in Telangana for detaching themselves from Andhra is taking place since there isn't any development happening in the region from a very long time ,when compared to the Hyderabad centred Andhra .But the fact is all the major mineral mining areas are located in Telagana plateau which is a major revenue source to the State of Andhra Pradesh.From state of Andhra's viewpoint, parting away from the Telangana plateau ,which is a major revenue generating area to the state,would prove them very costly.The Sri Krishna commitee set up by the center have come up by 6 alternatives to solve the above problem.
Smaller states,when created,will economically as well as socially improve the area because of the new capital which would become the "Growth center".With the establishments of new centres ,The consumption pattern of the growth centre evolves where in the primary producer (vegetables,dairy products..,) would get a very good market from the tertiary sector(Employees workin in industries and MNC's) which in turn causes the Trickle down effect.All the government policies will be concentrated in a lesser geographical unit which would be easy to administer as well as to review.
Smaller states may also create a situation wher it would dissolve the system of coalition government at the state legislature where as they would increase the parties in the national legislature,and there off the era of coalition govt continues.The issue of Gorkhaland was handled in a easy way by creating a seperate Gorkhaland territorial administration for those 3 districts and thier representation in the West Bengal assembly has led to a peacefull settlement of situation.Where as in few other region demanding for a seperate state being a vote-bank political gimmic.
The major challenge for any particular region for asking for a seperate state is not getting there demand sanctioned,but there path towards the direction of devp i.e., govt should not be monotonous in particular sphere, but it should be an overall development in all the aspects starting from proper education system at the elementary level to the establishment of world class universities and R & D centres.This growth should also be reflected in the reports of UN where there shall be seperate surveys like gross national happiness index or human development index .
If the creation of smaller states helps us in improving the figures of the above mentioned surveys,then we should definitely consider moving ahead in creating smaller states.
Thus creation of smaller states have both merits and demerits in the spheres of administration, finance and development.The solution is the creation of self reliant and strong panchayats which is the root of this big tree called "India". And in the eras of 3Gs and 4Gs communication technology,there should be investment by the government in projects like UIDAI ,KCC,opening of IT enabled kiosks and effective implementation of e-governance.
