By S Paul
As we celebrate the 25th birthday of our state, earlier called ‘Uttaranchal’ and then ‘Uttarakhand’, I feel I must share with you all my joy and also some apprehensions. We have earned this statehood from the erstwhile larger state of Uttar Pradesh after being subjected to much humiliation and physical molestation. Rampur Tiraha is a monument to the subjugation and repression of a peaceful and democratic effort to represent our case in the national capital. It is perhaps our respect for the process of democracy that despite that great humiliation at the hands of the ruling party in UP, we let them field their candidate in the very next elections in our state. But, I also remember with some bitterness the euphoria that had enveloped some very regional minded Uttarakhandis, who during our struggle to demand a separate state had bluntly asked some personnel who have settled here for decades, and were even born and brought up here but not belonging to either the Garhwal or Kumaoni stock as to when they were going to leave Uttarakhand. This ethnic sounding regional anti-national prejudice seems to have affected some sons of the soil bureaucrats and other government servants, too. Such a tendency gives rise to illicit nepotism and partisanship (Bhai-Bhatijawad). This feeling has percolated among even retired military personnel so much so that they have started forming their exclusive groups to celebrate our common religious festivals (while for serving soldiers this is strictly not permitted). It is a very dangerous trend which may affect the serving soldiers too, putting at risk our national security and strength of the military.
But proudly now we have our own state for the people of the hills and terrain region to self-govern and not be exploited and neglected any more. I am also at a loss to understand as to why was the musical sounding ‘Uttaranchal’ replaced by a divisive sounding ‘Uttarakhand’? Was this for political appeasement too? In these twenty-five years, this state has crossed many milestones of progress to become an attraction for the rest of our nation for all kinds of tourism and also a desire for owning a piece of this heaven. Tourism has become the main source of our revenue and has attracted investment from all over. I feel really proud to realise that we can compete and even be better than our nation’s other hill states in many aspects. But the uncontrolled and unregulated urge to own a piece of this ‘heaven’ has caused great harm to the pristine climate of the state, especially our cities and more especially this valley of Dehradun. Most harm to our salubrious ambience has been caused by our own natives who gave up their rural abodes for an urban way of life seeking more opportunities for work, business and obtaining higher and better education for their young ones. Our villages have been abandoned and our towns have become congested. Adding to them is the uncontrolled migration of villagers, job seekers and business communities of our neighbouring states and even illegal infiltrators to our state. In our villages, customarily, any festive occasion is celebrated with gusto and noise we call it (shor-sharaba). But the migrants seem to have assumed that they have moved from their small remote villages to a large village like Dehradun and other cities. They have not developed the discipline and attitude of living in urban areas, where the citizens are more concerned about the noise and other pollution than in their villages. They also try to celebrate their villages’ traditional festivals disturbing the peace of the town’s population. Our leaders have even imposed the traditional festivals of some other states which fall in continuation of the main festival of Diwali. Our politicians seem to be very fond of declaring holidays for all such occasions. Add to these the closures of our educational institutes for natural reasons of acute heat or heavy rains or severe cold or a procession taken out in the towns. All these holidays make our young ones think that education is less important than to enjoy all these holidays. Their parents, especially working parents, are put to great stress in arranging for their children to be looked after at home or one of them to take leave affecting performance at their workplace. The teachers too are put to great difficulty in trying to finish their syllabus for the term and prepare their students for important exams. However, it is good to see that more of our backwardness is changing into prosperity in all aspects. But we have to be wary not to let this ‘prosperity’ become ‘opulence’ and affect our young ones who have a tendency to become careless and risk their lives in accidents of youthfulness.
It is also painful to recognise the greed of some of the pioneers and erstwhile lovers of Doon who through generations had given this valley the grandeur of an exclusive salubrious atmosphere by owning large swathes of land and keeping them green. They and their progeny are now giving themselves to the lure of money, tempted by the developers from outside the state to let the green be replaced by the grey of high rise residential or commercial structures. Even our planners, the MDDA, has fallen to this temptation. The open cooling channels of fresh water have been covered. The aquifers have been exploited resulting in deepening of subsoil moisture affecting our natural forest cover. This valley and even the entire state having the nation’s major rivers emanating from it have failed to use this abundance of surface water for its potable needs. The valley is now bursting at its seams and is choking with overpopulation. Yet the government is planning to make satellite cities near Doiwala and Paonta Sahib side. What kind of planning is this? Is it again a manipulation by the developers’ coterie? Can’t the sons of soil realise that gaining gold by such means is very much more harmful, losing the green ambience of the valley or whatever is left of it?
And why this haphazard management by crisis type burden being heaped upon this valley when it is yet a ‘temporary capital’ of the state? What happened to Gairsain where the government has already sunk more than Rs 300 crores of funds into making a grand Sansad Bhavan and residential complex for the secretariat? That seems to be a waste of funds provided by the central government and indirectly taxpayers’ money. Why not consider an existing town/city in the Terai region to be a permanent capital which is easily approachable by hill regions and is well connected to the other parts of the nation. I think Haridwar to be ideal for the purpose and also for raising satellite cities for Dehradun. It has vast plains to expand and has no dearth of water and is well connected by railroad and air. Why not even Biharigarh to benefit our neighbouring state since a fast-track road communication is coming through it? However, even with all these apprehensions I feel proud of our young and enthusiastic leadership who are trying to function in harmony with our dedicated leadership at the centre. I hope they shall be able to generate a feeling of true nationalism among us the honoured citizens of this Dev Bhumi. Jai Uttarakhand and Jai Bharat.
