By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 28 Mar: State Cabinet Minister Satpal Maharaj on Monday paid homage to the martyred statehood agitationists by visiting the Martyrs’ Memorial located in the court complex, here.
On the occasion, Maharaj resolved to develop the state according to their vision.
Statehood agitationists also submitted a memorandum to the Minister regarding their demands. He assured them that he would definitely act on their demands according to the aspirations of the people of the state.
Senior state agitationist and BJP spokesperson Ravindra Jugran, who was present on the occasion, said that Cabinet Minister Satpal Maharaj had made an important contribution in the formation of Uttarakhand state. Satpal Maharaj was the patron of the “Uttarakhand Rajya Nirman Samyukt Sangharsh Samiti” along with the late Indramani Badoni, during the movement.
Jugran recalled that it was Satpal Maharaj who had introduced the Private Member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha for the creation of a separate state of Uttarakhand as a member of the Lok Sabha. Apart from raising a strong voice in Parliament for the formation of Uttarakhand, to build a consensus among all political parties, Harkishan Singh Surjit and Jyoti Basu made meaningful efforts for the formation of Uttarakhand state by corresponding with and personally contacting all the big leaders of that time. It was as a result of the personal efforts of Maharaj that the then Prime Minister, HD Devegowda, in 1996, and Prime Minister IK Gujral in 1997 announced the resolve to form a separate Uttarakhand state from the ramparts of the Red Fort. The result of his relentless efforts was that the then Prime Minister, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, created a separate Uttarakhand state on 9 November 2000. The mission is currently being taken forward by Satpal Maharaj under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Among senior statehood agitationists present today were Ravindra Jugran, Sushila Baluni, Jagmohan Singh Negi, Pradeep Kukreti, Vijay Pratap Singh Mall, Vipul Nautiyal, Mohan Singh Rawat, Rakesh Aswal, Prabhat Dandriyal, Anshul Chawla, Kuldeep Pant, Tarun Jain, Honey Sisodia, Sheeshpal Chauhan, Ankit Chauhan, Pradeep Maseta, Kuldeep Rawat, Kopal Sharma, etc.
