By SUNIL SONKER
MUSSOORIE, 3 Mar: A joint meeting was organised in the auditorium of a local hotel, today, by social organisations and statehood agitationists at which an ‘Uttarakhand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti’ was formed to address various problems of the state.
It was decided at the meeting that, if within 15 days, the government does not sack Minister Prem Chand Aggarwal for ‘abusing’ the hill people, then the activists of the Samiti would march in large numbers from the martyrs’ memorial in Mussoorie to the Chief Minister’s residence in Dehradun with torches in their hands. It was said that, if even then the minister is not dismissed, then like the Uttarakhand movement of 1994, an agitation would be launched all over the state for the minister’s dismissal.
It was pointed out that the state government has made a flexible land law, which will not save the mountains but will benefit the land mafia. Uttarakhand Uttarakhand was created to save the mountains and to stop migration but, unfortunately, this has not been achieved in the 25 years since the state was formed. Congress and BJP have formed the government in Uttarakhand one after the other, but instead of developing Uttarakhand, both the parties have exploited it, which would not be tolerated. If the government does not strengthen the land law and amend the rule on live-in relationships in the Uniform Civil Code, then a protest movement would be launched.
Among those present on this occasion were Devi Godiyal, Pratap Panwar, Darshan Rawat, Pradeep Bhandari, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Mulayam Singh Pahadi, Puran Juyal, Sunita Semwal, Puran Negi, Sunil Uniyal, Neelam Chauhan, Kamlesh Bhandari, Sanjay Tamta, Radheshyam Sharma, RP Badoni, etc.
