Nagpur.
At the outset Mayur Panchmaitya, President, NVCC gave floral welcome to Shreehari ji Aney and Mukesh Samath & explained why separate State of Vidarbha is demanded by the citizens of Vidarbha. He requested Aney to enlighten the factual Statehood issue. He further added because previously Nagpur was capital of Madhya Pradesh & after incorporation with Maharashtra step motherly treatment is given to Vidarbha region which is all are aware Nagpur geographically situated in center of heart of India has all natural resources. He further said that LBT is in Maharashtra except Mumbai, why? For further detail Aneyji was invited for his address to gathering.
While addressing a large gathering at an event organized by Nag Vidarbha Chambers of Commerce (NVCC), Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) and Vidarbha Connect (Vcan), senior advocate Shreehari Aney justifying the demand of separate state of Vidarbha said trading and manufacturing activity require markets and consumers, however trading and manufacturing exist where there are markets and/or consumers and in order to support trading and manufacturing, markets need consumers, which in turn needs income.
And income comes from means of livelihood, while means of livelihood may themselves come through trading and manufacture, or from local conditions and requirements; therefore if trading and industry are to be created, and if they are to survive and prosper, there has to be (a) Population which consumes the product that trade and industry is creating or dealing with, (b) The area where that Trade or Industry exist must have actual conditions which will support the trade and industry and (c) The consumers must have the purchasing power to sustain the trade or industry.
Aney specifically raised a question, are there enough people in Vidarbha who can be real buyers with money to buy; and has trade and industry developed on the basis of local resources which are used to create products that have a market? Answering it yes, he continued that historically, we Vidarbhites were affluent people. Loknayak Aney’s memorandum to the Fazal Ali Commission shows C P and Berar to be a surplus State. The State Reconstruction Committee’s Report confirms this and expressed Vidharbha’s anxiety to be attached to Deccan, as it is a poor part of the country. During that period local industry was integrally related to local conditions, therefore cotton related industry, orange related industry, forest related industry flourished.
Aney continued, if we were rich, how did we become poor? Because Vidarbha’s chief means of generation of wealth stopped generating wealth. Historically, we had two means of wealth generation Agriculture and Forests; unfortunately both were tampered with by intentional illogical policies by state government. Method of generation of wealth underwent a change; Private Enterprise was replaced by Socialism. Requisite funding and market expansion stopped, thus our prime cotton related industry, Beedi Tendu industry and Orange industry were destroyed.
Aney said later we loss of state patronage, The Nagpur Pact and Development Boards didn’t work. This affected availability of money, skilled manpower, and availability of employment. Actual access to State Government was denied. The planning processes were irrelevant to Vidarbha’s requirements.
Aney concluded thus to improve all this political power must be shifted back so that it sustains the local economy and population. Planning process must relate to local resource available and local consumption needs and fund generation must have dedicated end use – within the area, which clearly specifies that there is no alternative to Vidarbha’s statehood, Raju Vyas, Treasurer proposed vote of thanks.
Prominent present were Sarva Prakash Wadhwani, Past President, Prakash Mehadia, Hemant Gandhi, Vice Presidents, Manubhai Soni, Secretary, Raju Vyas, Treasurer, Sachin Puniyani, Ashok Sanghvi, Arjundas Ahuja, Jt. Secretaries, J. P. Sharma, Tejendersing Renu, Abhishek Jha, Natwar Patel, Umesh Patel, Raju Vyas, Manohar Sahajramani, Ram Motwani, Radhakishan Gayani, R.S. Dayani, Vinod Sahani, Vijay Chandak, A.K. Deshpande, Ashwin Mehadia, Yogendrakumar Agrawal, Rajesh Aamte, Ashok Waghwani, Hasmukh Patel, Suresh Arya, Damodhar Tiwade, Zoher Kagajawala, Vikram S. Trivedi, Praksah Trivedi, Nilesh Pund, Deepak Khurana, Sagin Parekh, Sarjerao G. Mustenrao, Vinod Joshi, D.S. Tulli, Hitesh Ketpal, V.P. Buty, B.P. Buty, Moiz Fidvi, B.B. Gurjar, Rahul Agrawal, Rajesh Lakhotia, Sandesh Kanoje & Kishor Paliwal, states in a Press Note issued by Sachin Puniyani, Jt. Secretary of the Chamber.
