By Our Staff Reporter
Bhararisain, 15 Mar: For the first time in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, an MLA has raised the issue of increasing population imbalance in the state and ‘land jihad’.
BJP’s Rudrapur MLA Shiv Arora raised this matter in the House today and asserted that this problem is taking a formidable form in Uttarakhand.
Arora claimed that population imbalance is becoming a big problem in Uttarakhand. He said that this is happening on a large scale in areas adjoining the state’s borders. In particular, in Udham Singh Nagar district, people from UP are illegally settling on government lands and a land jihad conspiracy has been hatched. Without naming anyone, he stressed said that communal forces are trying to influence the culture of Devbhoomi.
Arora also cited the examples of rising population imbalance in districts of Uttarakhand which share their borders with UP. He said that this is a matter of huge concern and there is an urgent need for the government to identify such people who have settled illegally and evict them.
The Rudrapur MLA reminded that the Muslim population in Uttarakhand is increasing the most after Assam. In the four plains districts, this population has increased to more than 35 percent and this has become the biggest reason for population imbalance. He said that large scale encroachment on railway land in Haldwani, in Pachhwa Doon, in Dharampur constituency in Dehradun, in Haridwar and in Udham Singh Nagar districts is worrisome and needs to be tackled seriously.
