With the Uttarakhand Assembly elections just round the corner and the statehood formation day observed on Nov 9, the Congress government in the state made massive preparations once again to celebrate the last foundation day of its tenure.
But once again, the basic question making rounds in the state: whither Uttarakhand?
Like the other two states – Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand – Uttaranchal or Uttarakhand came into existence at the advent of the millennium. Nearly one crore inhabitants in the hills and foothills of an undivided Uttar Pradesh heaved a sigh of relief as their dream finally came true and decades of long-drawn struggle to gain statehood came to an end once and for all with their hopes touching a new high.
But, what eventually the people of this small sub-Himalayan state have come across over the past 16 years is political instability, routine stories of corruption, scandal and continued migration of able-bodied people from the state in the absence of jobs, insufficient infrastructure and basic amenities in their home state.
According to a recent report by an NGO, out of over 16,000 villages in Uttarakhand, hundreds lie abandoned today. In fact, it is said that the poor people from Nepal have come to occupy many such villages.
This situation is being attributed to political instability and poor leadership. Since its formation, the state has witnessed the rule of eight chief ministers – all in a span of 16 years.
Then, the recently imposed President’s rule following the exit of 11 MLAs, including a former CM, from the ruling Congress, said it all. Indeed, there had never been a cohesive view on developmental issues in the state. Instead, it was verbal duel between the political parties, sometimes bordering on personal exchanges between their leaders.
Ever since the first Assembly elections in 2002, successive state governments were formed on wafer-thin majority in the 71-member house (one MLA being nominated from the Anglo-Indian community). Interestingly, an Anglo-Indian is nominated even though there is no record of existence of a good number of Anglo Indians in the state.
Even as political instability goes against the state’s interests, there is a general perception of the ‘overbearing interference’ of the national parties in the state. The two national parties – the BJP and the Congress – have been ruling the state alternatively on a slender majority, all thro-ughout, with no scope for local leaders to have a strong say. Th-ere have been charges of land, liquor, forest, education and mining mafia behind many decisions of the state government.
It is easy to surmise that the fragile majority governments have no option but to succumb to all kinds of pressures, even diverting their attention from the primary task. By and large, it is because of this fluid situation that public money has been spent indiscriminately on undesirable heads such as unplanned constructions, payment to contractors, foreign visits by politicians and officials, unnecessary advertisements and payments to boost government image etc.
Hanging fire
In Uttarakhand, the appointment of a Lokayukta to check the financial irregularities has been hanging fire despite the annual reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General raising objections on various omissions and commissions in the state.
The poor hill folk, particularly from the Garhwal region of the state, continue to remain undefended and their plight seems to have remained unaltered. This was the region which had suffered the most during the various regimes – the Gorkhas from Nepal, who ruled the region from 1792 to 1815, the British and later successive UP governments. Even today, char-ges of the Garhwal region being neglected by the state government are being levelled quite often, particularly by politicians opposed to the ruling party.
The successive state governments have also miserably failed in dealing with the parent state of Uttar Pradesh because of the lack of political will and polarisation. Several important matters such as the finalisation of state capital, equitable division of assets and liabilities and the issue of geographical contiguity of the state remain unresolved to this day.
The burning issue of finalisation of the state capital has also divided the public opinion. While many hill people want a small hamlet up in the hills called Gairsain to be declared the permanent capital, others prefer status quo.
Dehra Dun continues to be the interim capital of the state. Taking advantage of this weakness in Uttarakhand, UP continues to exercise control over many assets belonging to Utta-rakhand such as part of irrigation department, Ganga water canals, properties of Uttarakhand tourism department, funds of some state corporations and immovable properties.
The fact is that the UP Reorganisation Bill, 2000, authorises ownership of the assets lying in the new state of Uttarakhand. The question of geographical contiguity of the state also rem-ains unresolved to this day. Two districts of UP – Saharanpur and Bijnor – overlap the geographical contiguity of the state.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Dehra Dun)