A majority of Gujarati people settled in the region consider that a separate state would not help remove backlog of Vidarbha. If elected
representatives like MLAs and MPs made efforts they could remove the backlog, they felt.
Speaking to TOI, Sanjay Mehta, a central government employee, felt that separation of Vidarbha from Maharashtra was not the solution. Vidarbha constituencies send representatives to assembly and Parliament. What are they doing? If a separate state is carved out, there will still be the same leaders. It is the fault of the leaders in the region that it hasn't developed," he said.
Mehta blamed MPs and MLAs of the region fighting each other for lack of development in the region. For instance, Mihan was badly affected due to internal rivalry between Vilas Muttemwar and Praful Patel, he pointed out. Moreover, there were no major industries
in the region, he said.
Manish Nagrecha, a wholesale grain merchant from Warora, was also of the opinion that a separate state would not help. "There is a famous saying-United We Stand, Divided We Fall. If a country that prided itself on its unity in diversity started to breakup along political, social, economic, cultural, religious and linguistic lines, it would go back to the times when we had princely states. The result was a colonial rule that left the country in ruins," he said.
Rajeev Jhaveri, businessman, admitted that the region was backward, but said separate state would not be a solution. According to him, barring Nagpur, other cities in Vidarbha contribute very less in terms of revenue, whereas Pune, Nasik, Aurangabad generate more revenue for the government. "In an age, where whole world is a global village, division cannot be an answer to our problems. Better governance, higher accountability, reduced 'red tapism' and bureaucracy and a lesser focus on the individualism may be a step towards solving a problem," he added.
Says Ghanshyam Mehta, a social activist and a consultant: "The region should be separated only by adopting Gandhigiri. There should be no violence like in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, where not only government properties were damaged, but many people died in protests."