Uttarakhand's real problems

Uttarakhand is again in the news and for the same old reasons: its political instability and power struggles. The young state will complete 16 years this November but it has already seen eight chief ministers, and not more than one staying in power for a full five-year term. Political over-ambitions, intra party rivalry, shameless apparent corruption, inefficiency of the leaders, lack of effective resistance from the civil society and critical media reporting could be some of the possible reasons.

Uttarakhand came into existence on November 9, 2000, after a long struggle of the hilly region to claim its sovereignty and exert emphasis on its unique geo-political needs. The state is certainly different from the tarai states and the demand was justified. People were enthusiastic after the division of the state from UP, expecting immense opportunities for livelihood and development in public and private sectors.  But nothing is achieved. Political instability and lack of political will for development caused more harm to the small state than its being part of UP would have been done.

Irony is rather than becoming a hub for sustainable development and economic prosperity, the state is today a ring for political fights and home to corrupt and greedy politicians.

The initial focus on economic development of the state led to establishment of economic zones in Pantnagar and Haridwar. But the endeavour was nipped in the bud as political nepotism prevailed and government land got distributed in the name of industrial development. This can be said to be the biggest illegal marketing of government land till date. Unemployment is at its peak today, yet the factories that were supposed to come up are nowhere to be seen.

Mining is another sector where political parties are extracting undue benefits. The state is rich in metallic and non-metallic minerals such as limestone and copper. But the geographical and seismic sensitivity does not make it very favourable to mining. However, this sensitive ecological warning was not heeded by the state government. The result is Uttarakhand today is seeing a scramble by mining companies and real estate sharks, who are using the material to build multistoried commercial buildings in the delicate ecosystem leading to deadly landslides and floods.

Revenue from alcoholic beverages is always attractive to every state government and Uttarakhand is nowhere behind in it. However, high alcohol consumption has made the valuable human resource of the state almost next to useless. Women in hills have always had a struggling life. Men here do not do much farming or livestock management and it becomes the sole responsibility of the women. Alcoholic husbands and sons (not many women drink) have added an extra tier to the multi-tiered struggle that women go through on a daily basis. Domestic violence and health issues causing added medical burden is another story, which needs a deeper exploration in itself.

Agreed that the hilly land is not very conducive to farming, but that does not give licence to state governments to sell public land for reckless, ecologically unsound industrial projects, which are actually political give and take. This leads to non-distribution of the land to those who need it and can cultivate it.

Traditional farming methods and seeds are replaced by subsidised, occasionally GM seeds, with climate change disrupting the hilly ecology and farming patterns. The farmers can hardly do any agriculture and unlike plainer states, they do not have the alternative of becoming a daily wage earner due to lack of opportunities. Migration is the last resort and as a result of the constant outflow, the hilly villages are almost emptied.

Coming to youth issues, lack of employment opportunities has been a longstanding problem. Lack of teachers in schools, inefficient education, early and abundant exposure of marijuana and alcohol, rotten public health services and no career guidance in crucial years of life has made the young boys and girls defunct. The creamy layer among the youth migrates and hardly comes back to the home state, in fact choosing to settle in more prosperous southern or northern states. Voluntary and compulsory migration from state is a grave concern.

But respective governments are still busy playing constitutional/unconstitutional games. Deciding legally and debating on how many members of legislative assembly they need to form a government or whether to continue with the presidential rule is really a lesser problem. It seems even the general public is also enjoying this charade as media is exceptionally active nowadays. No one is looking at the plethora of problems and issues that are bogging the state down just everyone is busy playing or consuming the unseemly political games.

There's migration, unemployment, women and child health, ecological disasters, depreciating tourism and dying traditional farming. These are the real "constitutional" problems of the state today and which need quick remedies, not electoral and legislature gimmicks.

On the other hand, the issue of permanent capital has also gone unnoticed in the din of the elections. Both the two parties are silent so far even as the government’s efforts to construct a state Assembly building at Gairsain in Chamoli district have failed.

The migration of youths is also not on the agenda of the main political parties, though Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), which has suffered several splits during the past few years, had been raking it up regularly. Unemployment, a related issue, is also missing.

With the hydropower sector facing green concerns, all the political parties are unanimous that the issue should not be touched. “The hydropower is the key growth driver in the hill state. But this is very bad that all the political parties are shying away from the issue,” said Avadhash Kaushal, head of RLEK, a Dehradun-based NGO, spearheading a campaign to harness river water energy in the hill state. Uttarakhand which produces over 3,622Mw of hydropower from various hydel projects, has the potential to generate over 27,040Mw of power, according to the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd.

The issue of jal, jungle and zameen (water, forests and land), dear to social activists.

Assembly polls in tiny hill state of Uttarakhand are apparently less about issues and more about personalities and cult.

The outcome will depend on the political acumen of the major players – the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Largely, it will be a direct fight between Congress and BJP. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has a base in a few pockets in the plain areas and could dent the prospects of candidates from the other two parties.

The last five years have been a roller-coaster ride for Uttarakhand. In June 2013, the state witnessed one of the biggest natural disasters after cloudburst triggered massive floods and landslides that claimed more than 5,000 lives in the Kedarnath valley. Following the disaster, then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was replaced with his bête noire, Harish Rawat, in early 2014.

But that failed to bring stability. Last year, a political coup engineered by rebel Congress legislators led by Bahuguna who backed by the BJP to unseat Rawat shook up the power corridors and led to chaos. The imposition of President’s rule for a brief stint, then litigations challenging it, and a sting video of Rawat purportedly offering money to lure legislators to save his government added to the flux.

The polls will be the biggest test for Rawat, who managed to win a floor test and save his government in May last year. The election will shape his political future. With other senior Congress leaders not in the picture, Rawat, who had to wait for 12 years before the opportunity to become CM knocked on his door, is leading the party’s election chariot. It will be a big boost for the Congress if it manages to retain Uttarakhand.

The BJP, meanwhile, exudes the confidence of being better organised. The party’s top leaders, including poll in-charge and Union ministers JP Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan, are conducting whirlwind tours of the state. BJP leaders are highlighting “political corruption” in the state at poll meetings and also showing the sting video of Rawat allegedly offering money to legislators to save his government.

Rawat is countering the charges at public gatherings, saying, “BJP ke saare balwan milkar kamjor mukhyamantri ko chiit karna chahtey hain (All powerful leaders of BJP intend to crush a weak CM).”

The Congress government has been repeatedly hit by allegations of corruption. Incidentally, the first such charge Rawat faced was last year when his principal secretary, Md Shahid, was shown in a sting video allegedly inking a deal to award liquor distribution to a private player.

Without naming anyone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said at a rally in Dehradun, “By now politicians should know that people know everything.”

The BJP will have in its corner rebel Congress leaders who came into its fold. Former Congress stalwarts now in the BJP include Bahuguna, former minister Harak Singh, Kunwar Pranab Champion and Satpal Maharaj.

On the morning of 15 February, a group of six will leave Boundul village on a long trek along a narrow path to cast their vote in Uttarakhand’s assembly elections.

There is a reason they will make the journey together through dense forests. As the only adults left in an empty village at the bottom of a hill, they are each other’s sole defence against a growing list of threats to their daily life.

“Akele jayenge toh baagh kha jaayega (if I go alone, a leopard might attack me),” says Buna Devi, one of Boundul’s three remaining women. But nothing will stop her from casting her vote. “We have to go. Voting is our right.”

Devi has cast her vote in all three assembly elections since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000. Her reasons for voting increase with every term.

Boundul is one of the 341 villages in Pauri district with just a handful of residents. There are 664 such villages in the Garhwal region. Worse, nearly 1,100 villages in Uttarakhand— 88% of the state is hilly — do not have a single person left.

Migration from the hills is one of the biggest issues facing political parties in this election. Yet, it’s a problem they have no clue how to handle.

There are a number of reasons why these villages are emptying out. After the first batch of working-age people left for a better life in the plains, the remaining residents struggled to carry on with farming, their only source of income.

“Pine trees spread wild in the fallow farms, monkeys settled themselves on these trees and began to destroy whatever crop we managed to grow,” says Birbal Singh, gram pradhan of Balori, a remote village in the foothills of Pauri.

As Pine trees encroached further into the villages, so did the surrounding forest’s wildlife. “Leopards, bears, wild boars, you name it,” adds Singh.

Waves of young people have left these villages over the years to work in cities. “Dehradun, Haridwar, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Mumbai — anywhere they can find a factory,” says Basanti Devi, mother of two sons in Balori. One works in a factory canteen in Gurgaon. The other will follow soon.

“Most of us find work either in factories or restaurants,” says Bipin Kumar, one of Balori’s 12 residents below the age of 25.

“The worst thing about the migration from this part of Uttarakhand is that you will find our people doing the pettiest of jobs for the most meagre salaries because of the complete lack of option back home,” said a district official in Pauri.

Those remaining in these villages no longer have faith in governments, whether it’s Congress or BJP at the helm. “Jahan haath chala jaayega, wahin vote lag jaayega,” says 70-year-old Lalita Devi. Most people of her generation have followed their children to the cities.

A hundred families lived in Balori in 1980. Most of their typically multi-storey wooden houses have crumbled to the ground. Giant locks hang from the colourful doors still standing.

The villagers have tired of trying to seek government help.

“We need more time,” says Mathura Dutt Joshi, the Congress spokesperson. “The Congress took a number of steps to counter migration — offer a bonus of Rs 500 for every quintal of produce to farmers in the hills, send doctors to remote medical centres, open industrial training units for the youth, create jobs in the forest sector. We could have done better had the BJP not disturbed the process by trying to topple the government. ‘Reverse migration’ is the Congress motto for this election.”

Says Munna Singh Chauhan, BJP MP and spokesperson: “We have several plans in mind — launching small and micro enterprises in the hills, pushing tourism by building better roads and bridges, promoting organic farming, setting up plantations of apple, ginger etc.”

The leftover people in the hills have heard these promises before.

“Our lives don’t change with change in governments,” says Naveen Juyal, one of the three men left in Boundul. All of them support their families with occasional work under NREGA. It’s too late for these men to leave the village looking for jobs. They hope their teenage children will take them along once they grow up and go out. “Either that or when the animals take over.”

The Main Election Issues for the Uttarakhand Assembly Election 2017

1.    Corruption.

2.    Power and Water Supply are also the key issues since there are 4-5 hours of power cuts during day time in Uttarakhand.

Credit : http://www.dailyo.in/politics/uttarakhand-assembly-disorder-harish-rawat-bjp-congress-ecology-migration-farming-tourism-unemployment/story/1/9782.html

http://www.business-standard.com/article/elections-2014/uttarakhand-polls-major-issues-take-backseat-114043001257_1.html

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/uttarakhand-elections-migration-a-key-poll-issue-in-villages-drained-of-villagers/story-BLdb1dPYZ7NAGKLMa50D7K.html

http://infoelections.com/infoelection/index.php/uttaranchal/7673-uttarakhand-assembly-polls-2017-latest-elections-issues-news.html

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