Today is the eighteenth foundation anniversary of separate Uttarakhand state. Have we achieved the due goals?

Today is the 18th foundation day and anniversary of Uttarakhand, a Himalayan state carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9th November 2000 after the protracted struggle of thousands of people and activists of various socio political organisations since 1950 after India gaining independence.

The demand was for the very first time raised by Comrade PC Joshi of Communist Party of India in 1952 followed by various socio political movements thereafter. The leader of Himalaya Bachao Andolan Rishi Ballabh Sundriyal held a massive rally at Boat club in the seventies followed by a rally and court arrest at Raj Path near India gate lawns in 1978 under the leadership of the then member of Parliament Trepan Singh Negi. It was since then that the demand for statehood was raised every now and then in Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of India including Garhwal and Kumaon divisions finally gaining momentum during the nineties when the then chief minister of Uttarakhand Mulayam Singh Yadav tried to forcefully impose reservation in the hilly region where the population of the SC, STs were minimal, rather negligible.

The cumulative opposition of the reservation movement in Uttarakhand ( not formed then) gave rise to the tremendous wave of separate Uttarakhand movement led by the regional party Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, the CPI and other separate state protagonists not only in the then Garhwal and Kumaon regions of the undivided Uttar Pradesh but also in various metropolises and states of the country dominated by the majority population of Uttarakhandies.

In the initial phase of the movement the three major national parties Congress, BJP and CPM were against the division of Indian states but later on sensing the pro state do or die mood of the people of Uttarakhand included the demand in their respective election menifestoes, minus CPM and joined the movement in the later years during the nineties’.

The genocide and alleged rapes of the Uttarakhandi women coming to participate in the Delhi’s historic Red Fort rally added a special momentum to the movement making it more energetic and furious with Uttarakhand protagonists in lakhs supporting it in and outside Uttarakhand with full vigour and vitality.

About 42 to 46 movement activists comprising of youths, students, senior citizens and women laid down their precious livies facing police bullets in Ram Pur Tiraha, Khatima, Muzaffar Nagar, Mussourie n various other parts of Garhwal and Kumaon, finally compelling the then PM H. D Devegowda make the historic announcement from the rampharts of Red Fort and the BJP government under Atal Bihari Bajpayee with the support of Congress thereafter, officially declaring the separate Uttarakhand State on 9th November 2000.

Since then 8 chief ministers and two national political parties viz Congress and BJP have ruled the state. However, the people of the state are still dissatisfied with the Congress and BJP governments who had shockingly not yet fulfilled the actual aspirations of the electorates of the state for which it was formed with so much of sacrifices and relentless struggle.

The state’s economy seems to be in doldrums with a fiscal deficit crossing Rs. 44000 crores, even after 18 years of the state gaining separate existence.

Thousnds of schools in the interiors of Uttarakhand are being closed as 32 lakh people have migrated to the cities, towns and metropolises for want of job avenues, health facilities, quality education and better future prospects.

The state is still devoid of the decentralised socio economic, industrial, educational, medical, cultural and environment friendly development.

The successive state governments have never bothered to acede to the peoples’ demand to declare Gairsain as the permanent capital in the interior of Uttarakhand to ensure the adequate decentralised all round development of the state.

The corruption in bureaucracy and the political appratus of the state is skyrocketting with the liquor, land, private school, medical and mining mafia in political collaboration, having their fullest say.

The state’s law and order situation is at stake n in total disarray, with the disparity between the haves and have nots widening to the greatest extent.

The policy of construction of huge dams in the state have not only destroyed the environment and ecology of the himalayan state but has also enhanced the alleged corrupt practices in the system.

The ecological disasters have become the order of the day with the government apparatus not able to counter them due to the lack of vision and complete absense of disaster management techniques and apparatus.

The total absence of the decentralised development but widespread sale of the low quality n illicit liquor at the decentralised level has infact made the peoples’ life hell in the himalayan state of Uttarakhand which has been achieved after 46 precious sacrifices.

Lots of talks of revolutionary investments in the state to the tune of about 72000 crores are being made but it still remains to be seen whether these investments really see the light of the day in the accident prone state where people are constantly dying on every alternate days due to fatal accidents and maneater attacks with the vision less government becoming a mere spectator. What’s your take friends?