Bifurcation hots up in Malappuram

 

The district panchayat had adopted a resolution early this month favouring the division. The District Development Council followed suit two days back.

 

The resolution would now come up before the state government as a joint demand for bifurcation of the most-populated district.

 

“The meeting had decided to study its possibility by appointing a committee. It will submit a report to the government,” said district collector T. Bhaskaran, the DDC president.

 

But, interestingly, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the major player, is yet to take an official stand on the issue though it was its members who moved the proposal in both the bodies.

 

“Party has not taken a position. They proposed it as elected representatives,” IUML state general secretary K.P.A. Majeed said.

 

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) counters this, alleging that the IUML was playing to the galleries in the run-up to the polls.

 

“They eye votes of fundamentalists like the SDPI. The SDPI had called a hartal demanding a separate coastal district,” CPM district acting-secretary E.N. Mohandas alleged.

 

“How come IUML leaders propose it without the knowledge of its state leadership?”.

 

The Congress party is also in a fix as its members seconded the resolution at the district committee meeting. But Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is against it.

 

“We are yet to decide on the matter. Now it’s under study,” said DCC president E. Mohammed Kunhi.