Lucknow, Dec 20 (IANS): Taking exception to the central government's decision to return the proposal for division of Uttar Pradesh into four parts, Chief Minister Mayawati Tuesday accused it of trying to shirk responsibility on the issue for political reasons.

Addressing a press conference here barely a few hours after receiving a letter from the central government, Mayawati said it was a "blatant violation of constitutional provisions" and aimed at "dillydallying" the all-important issue.

Referring to the union home secretary's letter with as many as eight key queries relating to modalities for sharing of finances and assets of the parent state, Mayawati called them a "deliberate roadblock".

Mayawati sought to point out it was the ultimate prerogative of the centre to create a new state.

"Nowhere does the Indian constitution say that the process of carving out a new state has to be initiated by a state government or by the assembly of the concerned state assembly," she said.

"The national parliament is fully empowered to suo motu initiate the creation of a new state and after passing such a resolution it has to be sent to the president, who may seek the opinion of the concerned state legislature," she said.

Mayawati even cited the provisions of Article 3 of the Indian Constitution: "Parliament may by law form a new state by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state."

The article says, "Parliament can also increase or decrease the area of any state as also alter the boundaries or even the name of any state in the country."

Further pointing out that the constitution also provides for initiating the entire process by the president too, she said, "Fact remains that the state government has no role to play in the creation of another state; and it was amply evident that by shooting off such a letter and raising irrelevant queries, the central government is simply trying to shirk its responsibility."

Citing the case of the formation of Uttarakhand, Mayawati urged the centre to follow the same process.

"Let me remind the central government that the resolution for formation of Uttarakhand was passed by the state legislature on April 24, 1997, and forwarded to the central government, which in turn returned it to the state legislature together with a letter from the president, following which a resolution was formally adopted by the state legislature March 30, 2000," she pointed out.

Mayawati had Nov 21 managed to get a resolution passed by the state assembly for division of the state into four smaller states - Purvanchal in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Paschim Pradesh in the west, Avadh Pradesh in the centre and Bundelkhand in the south.

According to her, "The dilly-dallying tactics adopted by the centre has made it clear they are just not serious about the issue and are simply trying to pass the buck to the state government for obvious political reasons."

"Right from day one when the BSP government was formed in 2007, I have been pursuing the issue with the prime minister, to whom a few letters were also written by me in this regard. However, since the centre never cared to pay any heed to our repeated appeals, we were left with no choice but to initiate the process by formally getting a resolution passed by the state assembly and then forwarding it to the central government."