By Ravindra Saini
How the Congress punishes people when they reject it in elections was witnessed in Uttarakhand during the last five years. After it was voted out of power in April 2007, the Congress-led Central government first quashed the special industrial package granted to Uttarakhand by the NDA government and then continued to take decisions which not only hampered the interests of the people but also blocked the developmental process.
Industrial package
After the implementation of Special Industrial Promotion Package announced for Uttarakhand from January 2003 to 2013 by the then Atal Behari Vajpayee Government, a new era of industrialisation had began in the State. It resulted in a capital investment of more than Rs 2,600 crore in industrial sector and employment to over 1.5 people. But the Congress-led Central Government first reduced the duration of this package from 2013 to March 2010 and then fully quashed it even before 2010. It not only adversely affected the investment but also snatched the employment opportunities for over 2.65 lakh people. What surprised people more was the silence of all Congress MPs on it.
Arbitrary decision on ecological sensitive region
Without taking the State government into confidence the Central Government declared the area from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi as ecologically sensitive region. The State argued that Uttarakhand is a newly created State having 66.65 per cent of its land area already under forest cover, and, for all round development of the people there is a need for relaxation of different types of standards in the form of Special Category State. There are already various national parks, sanctuaries and authorities established in the State owing to which the State has to suffer a large number of prohibitory and restrictive provisions from the view point of environmental conservation. Secondly, Uttarakhand is a State giving maximum contribution in environmental conservation. In such a situation, imposition of additional restrictive provisions on the State in the form of the new notification is not in wider public interest. A population of about 91,713 people residing in 2 cities and 118 villages in the 135 km long stretch of the region between Gaumukh to Uttarkashi earns its livelihood through agriculture, tourism and other vocations. Besides, this area being situated on the India-China international border is extremely sensitive from the view of internal security and from strategic and tactical point of view. The local residents have always had a meaningful role in the protection and security of these international borders. In the interest of the State, a Government resolution was also passed in the Vidhan Sabha on March 29, 2011 by the State Government, to the effect that the Central Government immediately stops the action to declare this area as ecologically sensitive region.
Discriminatory funding
Uttarakhand was granted the status of Special Category State in the year 2001-02 and it had then been indicated that the State would be granted financial assistance from the Central Government as is given to north-eastern and Sikkim, Special Category States. But since 2001-02, the funding under the different Centrally-sponsored schemes is still being carried out in the ratio of 50:50, 66:34, 75:25, 80:20 etc., whereas funding of all these component-based Centrally-sponsored schemes should be in the ratio of 90:10. The Central Government should have given Rs 2,000 crore as balance amount for the duration of the year from 2001-02 up to 2009-10 in the form of a lump sum special package, but nothing of that sort happened.
Additional amount for development of border areas
Uttarakhand has 350 and 275 km long international borders with China and Nepal respectively. Presently, only nine development blocks of four border districts and one plain frontier district have been taken up under the Border Area Development Plan, due to which just 7 per cent population is getting benefited. It was necessary that approval was granted to implement the scheme in a total of 26 development blocks including all development blocks of frontier districts and one development block of one plain district. The states of Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab have been receiving extremely large amounts under the Border Area Development Plan but Uttarakhand in comparison was given extremely low amounts.
Side effects of Forest Conservation Act
According to a decision of the Supreme Court in 1980, upon utilising of forest land for non-forest activities, besides depositing the amount as per the Net Present Value (NPV), double the amount of land area of the forest land area so utilised is to be made available to carry out afforestation. Uttarakhand already has forest on 65 per cent of its forest land area and agriculture is done on 14 per cent of the total geographical land area of the State. Out of this, 19 per cent geographical area is permanently covered with snow, glaciers and steep slopes. According to the Forest Report, there is an increase in the area under forest cover. It appears that working in consonance with the national policy is going against the State’s interest because carrying out the work of compensatory afforestation is becoming difficult for the State. Whereas the Uttarakhand Government has established a 10,000 hectare land bank on January 9, 2009 for compensatory afforestation, against which land is made available to the Forest Department for compensatory afforestation.
Recently, the Forest Department imposed restriction on the utilisation of forest land for developmental activities on the plea that the land which is being made available for compensatory afforestation, the ownership of that land be transferred in the name of forest land. The State Government requested the Government of India that the land area which is to be given for compensatory afforestation, provision should be made to transfer that land to the Van Panchayats instead of transferring it to the Forest Department. Besides, a request was also made that till the time a decision to nullify the 1997 order of the undivided Uttar Pradesh is given by the Supreme Court, it should not request transferring of the identified land area for compensatory afforestation, in favour of the Forest Department.
Funding for airports
A total of Rs 325 crore to Sikkim for Pakyong and Rs 550 crore to Arunachal Pradesh for Itanagar have been sanctioned by the Government of India, and construction of 3 green field air ports from the sanctioned cost of Rs 880 crore for Chaithu Kohima in Nagaland is being done through the Indian Airports Authority. These are cent per cent infrastructure grants. Uttarakhand is also a Special Category State similar to the north-eastern states. It is of utmost importance that funding should have been provided by the Government of India for development of Naini-Saini (Pithoragarh), Chinyalisaur (Uttarkashi) and Gauchar (Chamoli) air ports in the State. But nothing happened.
Funding for railway projects
Since Uttarakhand is new State, cent per cent amount for rail projects to be built in the State should be borne by the Central Government. The responsibility of the State Government should be limited only up to making the land available. Because in view of the high input cost of the high technology construction of this project, it would not be practical to expect contribution in view of the limited resources of the State. Similarly, the construction of the Muzaffarnagar-Roorkee railway line should also be carried out from the resources of the Central Government. It is not possible to make 50 per cent payment of cost of construction of the railway lines out of the limited resources of such a small State.
Financial assistance for tourist amenities
About 7 to 8 crore people come into Uttarakhand every year which include tourists, pilgrims, people coming for a holy dip, adventure tourists, and water sports enthusiasts, etc. For a population of this size, the State has to incur excessively heavy amount of money to make provisions of basic amenities, law and order, security, drinking water, cleanliness, medical attention, traffic, transport and parking arrangements etc. In view of this also, giving financial assistance to Uttarakhand should be considered at the Central Government level.
12 per cent of the total generation potential
Electricity production from Tehri Dam has begun since the last three years, which is being added in the National Grid. The State presently gets only 12 per cent component of the electricity production, whereas it should get 12 per cent against the total generation potential. A hydroelectric generation potential of 25,000 megawatts is available in Uttarakhand but projects of only 3,164 megawatts capacity have been completed till now. Therefore, progressively more Central assistance should be given on hydroelectric projects in national interest.
Inadequate allocation of essential items
Under the APL scheme in the State under PDS, presently the allocation of foodgrains is extremely less than required. At present, there are 17,78,566 APL ration card holders. At the rate of 20 kg per ration card on the basis of the prescribed scale, the total requirement of wheat for the State is 35,571 metric tonnes. But only 14,766 metric tonnes of wheat is being allocated per month to the State. Similarly, on the basis of 15 kg rice per ration card, there is a requirement of 26,678 metric tonnes of rice but against this, only 2,324 metric tonnes of rice per month is being allocated.
Due to the geographical conditions of Uttarakhand being different from the other states, there is an increased reliance on kerosene oil comprising of mostly mountainous areas. There is a requirement of 12,000 kilolitres of kerosene per month, whereas only 9, 600 kilo litres of kerosene on an average is being received from the Central Government, which has further been reduced to 9,200 kilolitres at present.
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