17 years passed since Uttarakhand got statehood but no adequate compensation for Uttarakhand andolankaaries

SUNIL NEGI

Today is the 22nd martyrdom anniversary of Uttarakhand movement activists of Khatima in Kumaon division Uttarakhand who’d laid down their precious lives while struggling for the separate hill state on 1st September 1994. These separate Uttarakhand movement activists were martyred in Khatima when the then police under the chief ministership of Mulayam Singh Yadav,( then it was an undivided Uttarakhand in UP) fired on them without any provocation. These martyrs were leading the demonstration to demand the separate statehood. Those martyred in Khatima about twenty-four years ago while relentlessly fighting for the separate Uttarakhand cause were Bichuva resident Bhagwan Singh, Jhankat resident Pratap Singh, Salim hailing from Islam Nagar, Dharmanand Bhatt from Umrukala, a resident of Ratanpur Gop Chandra, Rajiv Nagar resident Paramjeet Singh and Rampal Singh of Nawab Ganj.

Similarly, on 2nd October 1994, several men n women activists while coming to Delhi to participate in the historic Uttarakhand rally of Red Fort were mercilessly killed n several women sexually assaulted and raped at Rampir Triraha, Muzaffarnagar to the utter dismay n shock of one and all. Similarly in Mussouri too our six Andolan Karie’s were martyred in unprovoked police firing during the nineties namely Ansa Dhanai, Balbeer Singh, Madan Singh Mamgain, Dhanpat Singh, Belmati Chauhan and Rai Singh Bangari. ,Today Uttarakhand has travelled a journey of seventeen long years after achieving separate statehood due to the sacrifices of innocent Uttarakhandies in Khatima n Mujaffarnagar Rampur trisection in 1994 but unfortunately, despite the change of  8 chief ministers of Congress n BJP the perpetrators of violence n murder suspects have not been tried under law nor arrested n neither penalised.

Those who sacrificed their innocent lives in their relentless struggle of separate Uttarakhand state have not been compensated by way of jobs or adequate financial considerations nor have the majority of the Andolan Karie’s identified to date. This is shocking n ridiculous and speaks of the complacency of the authorities concerned. The leaders of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, a regional political outfit active in separate Uttrakhand movement n leaders of various political parties and socio cultural organisation paid their heartfelt tributes to the martyrs in Khatima n Dehradun today by garlanding their portraits n pledging to imitate their ideas n principles.

 Uttarakhand Journalists Forum expresses its sincere heartfelt tributes to all the martyrs on their 22nd martyrdom and urges upon the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to compensate the families of these martyrs adequately and start the process of identification of the movement leaders and volunteers in order to bring them under the government’s prescribed policy of necessary compensation of pension and jobs  etc.