By S Paul
A metropolitan city (or metro city) is a densely populated urban area combined with adjacent suburban, industrial, and commuter zones, forming a major economic and cultural hub. These cities typically have populations exceeding 1 million, serving as substantial economic, social, and transportation centres. Such an aspiration of the government for the valley of Dehradun would effectively seal the fate of this once salubrious, healthy, and intellectual haven. Many Doon lovers have already given vent to their angst in this journal and other media.
Assigning it the status of a temporary capital and then spending taxpayers’ money indiscriminately to make it the functioning capital of the nascent state appears to be a staged charade intended to mislead the Doonites. Indeed, those of us who cherish the Doon culture do not believe that most of the Netas and Bureaucrats in the government have imbibed the spirit of the valley, and as such, are treating it as just another open part of the country in need of ‘Metropolisation’.
The management of the state appears to be ‘management by afterthought’. Spend Rs 300 crore to construct a Vidhan Sabha Building and infrastructure at Gairsain, then invest thousands of crores to develop Dehradun with a secretariat, accommodation for government officials, an exclusive, upscale residential colony for Bureaucrats, a tastefully remodelled and refurbished residence for the governor and ministers, a reserved prime location for another Vidhan Sabha, and new roads through riverbeds emulating the NH through Mohand, merely to reach Mussoorie. Additionally, secure central government support to create a 2½-hour access road between Delhi and Dehradun and then plan a Dehradun bypass from Asarodi via Shimla Road and Selaqui to Mussoorie. All these are new proposals consequent to the ones already executed, yet none considers preserving the ambience of the Doon Valley. What is this obsession of the planners with making all roads to Mussoorie pass through the valley? The funds expended on such projects could have been utilised to develop new hill stations at Gairsain and New Tehri, among others.
All the outsiders who have gathered in the valley were drawn not by its ambience but by the lure of wealth generated by the ‘temporary capital’. Greed attracted entrepreneurs and adventurers, creating a crowd that has begun to turn our valley into commercial chaos. Does that seem to be the principal aim of our Netas? Such desire has led to indiscriminate invitations to all and sundry to partake in the valley and the hill, bringing with them the ills of society. The surge in traffic congestion, crime, ostentatious displays of wealth, noise, and pollution is evident. Those migrating from villages did not respect the culture of Doon; instead, they behaved as though they had moved from their villages to a much larger one, where loud noise, crackers, and music late into the night were considered a way to announce festivities to neighbours. There are established laws against such pollution, but the authorities have never bothered to enforce them. These laws are flouted with impunity.
The retired elderly cannot stroll without fear of being crushed by drunken drivers. The intellectuals who used to create great literary gems and were connoisseurs of art find that they cannot concentrate any more. The pristine ambience has been covered with the dark dust of making money by any means. Can the political presence here help get rid of all this and prove their love for the land not wealth? That would be a unique miracle as the one consisting of the valleys, the mountains, the forests and the rivers of this given to us by nature in this part of the world called Uttarakhand.
