STAND UP FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE HILLS OF UTTARAKHAND
It’s an early morning here in Minneapolis and with the
time zone difference of 11 ½ hours between here and India, it would be sometime
in the evening there. We are in touch with the local news about happenings in
Dehra Dun and Uttarakhand, in particular. The early arrival of the monsoons in
North India and the fury with which it heralded its coming, lashing out with
unmitigated ferocity in the five districts of the State, causing great loss to
both life and property, is indeed unfortunate and a matter of serious concern
for its people. The unpreparedness of the State Administration and the much
talked about Disaster Management Organisation, to cope with the situation as
and when it occurs, is appalling, to say the least. The government and its
machinery is more than aware of the huge disarray rains cause to public life
during the pilgrim season, which loosely speaking coincides with the onset of
monsoons in North India. But, there is no dearth of excuses, which is belted
out by the elected representatives, who are given a mandate to govern and
administer as also to safeguard the interests of the masses. With more than
50,000 pilgrims stranded and caught up in traffic snarls and jams on the roads,
which service the four centres of Hindu pilgrimage viz Badrinath, Kedarnath,
Gangotri and Yamnotri located in the Garhwal Himalayas; is the worst publicity
for the fledgling State, which has fallen woefully short of realising the
purpose of its creation. And, this has more or less become a recurring feature
of the State Government’s failure to plan, prepare and engage with the
situation arising from a natural weather phenomenon. There seems to be no
political will to address the foremost responsibility of its leaders, which for
sure must and should be aligned to protect and promote the interests of its
indigenous population, which resides in the hills and villages of Uttarakhand. The
implosion which is round the corner in the few cities of the State, that have
been bequeathed by the State Government to real estate prospectors and land
sharks, is another testimony to the avarice of our politicians, cutting across
party lines and political ideologies. There seems to be a huge mental deficit
in the perception of the State’s Bureaucracy, to understand the manner and
design in which to bring about development, that lends itself to the geography,
ecology, topography and culture of
Garhwal and Kumaon. Things as they are today can only predict for itself a
disaster, which is waiting to happen in the higher reaches of Uttarakhand, where
the fundamental principle of symbiotic existence has been long discarded in the
subterfuge and stupidity of development practices; which better serve regions
as are distinct and different from what obtains and exists here.
The State of Minnesota and the twin cities of Minneapolis
and St Paul, in which we presently are to be with our son and family is a
verdant expanse that embraces both; concrete co located with gardens, parks,
open spaces, state highways, city roads, commercial centres, numerous water
bodies and well planned and laid out housing avenues, that enhance beauty and
celebrate nature in its abundant glory. This is what memory helps me to
recollect from within the deep recesses of my mind and draw a somewhat broad
comparison with the once upon a time Dehra Dun, with its forest cover, orchards,
streams and swathes of open spaces in which children played and gamboled towards adulthood. That has been ruined by those who wrested Statehood from
Uttar Pradesh for its people with the conviction of “Meeting the Aspirations of
the Hill Folks”. Fertile land with productive top soil has been sold out for
profit, only to create jungles of concrete instead. The avarice of the
political leadership in the State coupled with the crass hunger for money in
the ethically and morally challenged colonizers and developers, who have eked
out hugely profitable deals for themselves through the practice of crony
capitalism; has transformed the city’s landscape into a visual monstrosity and
a cesspool of corruption. The revenue officials, MDDA and Municipal
authorities, middle and lower rung bureaucracy, real estate agents and all
those who can manipulate and manoeuvre the system to accrue an advantage for
themselves, are laughing all the way to their banks and caches of slush money
at the expense of what is left of the natural beauty of Dehra Dun and other
cities, towns and villages which are its distinguishing feature. One truly
wonders where all this unabated construction activity, which is happening in
the absence of any committed and honest regulatory mechanism to oversee the
same and stall the plunder of nature and its many trappings, will lead the
State in the very near and immediate future.
The anger and despondency of the people, at the state of
affairs, which the State is besieged with, must come out with full force and
measure in every aspect of public life and demand their right to a secure and
dignified living. This is the time when the people of the economically vibrant
and developed cities must come together on a common platform with the people of
the hills, to give a voice which is in unison with that of the latter. When the
interests of the burgeoning middle class, which makes a life and living in
towns, cities and metropolises are affected, the streets, roads and plazas must
witness an ocean of human agitation. But, the same should also happen when
their own countrymen, women and children are marginalized by the callous
hearted political leadership and the cringing bureaucracy, that only knows how
to bulwark it’s own turf and interests. This should become an inclusive cause
of all people of Uttarakhand and not just those who are afflicted by the
indifference and misgovernance of the State Government. It is then and only
then that, there will be a hope to prevent the situation from becoming a human
tragedy of immense proportions, which will engulf all and without exceptions,
in the years to come.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, 64th W Street, Ridgeview Drive
Edina, Minneapolis
Minnesota, 55439
USA
Telephone No 001 612-747-5738
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