Nagpur Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar will stage a “dharna” in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Variety Square here on Sunday to stress the demand for a separate Vidarbha state. The demand has been revived following Telangana agitation picking up in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
A statement signed by Nagpur (South) Congress MLA Dinanath Padole and other Congress leaders here said, “The demand for Vidarbha is much older and stronger than that of Telangana and the Fazal Ali Commission has classified Vidarbha as viable, stable and surplus while rejecting proposals for Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. For last 50 years, people of Vidarbha waited in vain to see development of the region remaining in Maharashtra. But this has never happened and the region remains most underdeveloped in the country.”
The leaders have appealed to all the pro-Vidarbha supporters to join the dharna agitation.