Bikaner camel rally marks demand for separate state in Rajasthan - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Bikaner witnessed a rally of about 500 camels through its main thoroughfares on Monday. The rally was organised by activists of the Maru Pradesh (Desert Land) Development Front to press their demand for carving out a separate state from Rajasthan. The activists said, the districts of Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunu, Osiyan (Tehsil of Jodhpur), Nagaur and Sikar should be given separate statehood status - Manu Pradesh. "We will give a memorandum to President, Prime Minister and Home Minister that we 30 million people of these districts will constitute Desert state as we are deprived of the benefits of development. We will ask them that if they want our well being, then they should give us a separate state with Bikaner as its capital," said Jaaibir Godara, Founder-President, Maru Pradesh. They contended that once separate statehood is granted, people residing in the present districts of Manu Pradesh will have access to development which they have been deprived of since 1947. Although statistics-wise certain figures don't synchronise, it notes that the industrial output and employment in Maru Pradesh is less than 15 percent of the total industrial output in Rajasthan. It also mentions that the industrial output of Rajasthan during 2005 was 13 billion rupees in which the share of Maru Pradesh was only two million. Another regional imbalance projected by the Maru Pradesh Development Front is that the road density in Maru Pradesh is mere 32 percent of the entire Rajasthan.