PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The issues of Gairsain and Mool Niwas (domicile) dominated discussion on the second day of the special session of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday. The discourse at times also strayed into the mountain versus plain debate which elicited sharp response from the members. BJP MLA from Dharampur, Vinod Chamoli raised the issue of domicile and land consolidation in the house. He said that Uttarakhand is the only State in the country where there is no provision of domicile and anyone who has spent 15 years in the state can become its resident. “Uttarakhand has become a dharamshala where anyone can come. There is a cut-off date for domicile in Uttar Pradesh but there is no such provision here,’’ he said. Chamoli also demanded that land consolidation which has not been done in the mountainous areas since 1965 should be done to encourage agriculture and horticulture in the State. He said that the BJP government took an initiative on Gairsain and declared it as the summer capital of the State. Chamoli demanded that the government should now depute an officer of the rank of additional chief secretary (ACS) in Gairsain and start a mini secretariat from the summer capital. Congress MLA from Badrinath, Lakhpat Butola demanded that the government should immediately accord the status of permanent capital to Gairsain in Chamoli district. He said that there is a disparity between mountainous and plain areas of the State and to bridge this gap, the benefit of OBC reservation should be extended to the residents of the mountainous areas. Butola said that there are 1,700 ghost villages in the mountainous areas of the State which highlights the plight of people there. BJP MLA from Vikasnagar, Munna Singh Chauhan said that Uttarakhand was carved out from Uttar Pradesh to fulfill aspirations of the people of mountainous areas. Raising the issue of OBC reservation, Chauhan said that the people who are in the OBC category in other States should not be given similar benefits in Uttarakhand. He claimed that a survey in the Selaqui area of Dehradun showed that about 30 per cent of the people enjoying OBC status are outsiders. He said that concern regarding the change in demography is real in Uttarakhand. Giving the example of Vanbhooolpura, the BJP MLA said that vote bank politics resulted in a situation where government land was encroached upon, which created a hell-like situation for its residents. Congress MLA Sumit Hridayesh objected to the word ‘hell’ for Vanbhoolpura and said that the people there have been living there for many years. Amid pandemonium, Chauhan responded by saying that the people there were settled under an agenda and this is being done in other places as well. In his address, the BSP MLA Mohammad Shajad said that the issue of plain versus mountainous areas is being raised again and again in the house which is unfortunate. He said that the fact is that those advocating about mountainous areas don’t reside there. Intervening in the discussions the Parliamentary Affairs minister Subodh Uniyal said that the special session has been convened to celebrate 25 years of creation of the State and create a roadmap for the future. He said the members should refrain from raising divisive issues and added that all the residents of the State are Uttarakhandis.
BJP MLA from Tehri, Kishore Upadhyaya demanded reservation for the people of mountainous areas of the State in government jobs.
Independent MLA from Khanpur, Umesh Kumar said that discussion on the corruption in the successive governments should also be discussed. He claimed that in the MLA Local Area Development Fund, the legislators are forced to give 15 per cent commission to officials. He also demanded that Gairsain should be made the permanent capital of the State.
