The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Airy) will organise a meet with various factions of the party and other regional bodies in order to work out a plan to unite the UKD factions and those concerned with regional issues.
The party will rally to the Vidhan Sabha on the first day of the Assembly Session on November 24 to elicit focus on various issues being faced in the State, said party patron BD Raturi.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Raturi said that the party was thankful to Chief Minister Harish Rawat for announcing that the birth anniversary of ‘Uttarakhand’s Gandhi’ Indramani Badoni will be commemorated as Folk Culture Day and that 10 per cent horizontal reservation in government jobs would be provided to Statehood activists along with pension to aged Statehood activists.
“We demand that all identified Statehood activists be given pensions and all facilities. The State Government should introduce a bill in the coming Assembly session for providing 10 per cent horizontal reservation to Statehood activists and get it passed. We also demand that Gairsain be made the permanent capital and not only the summer capital of Uttarakhand. In addition to this, an employment policy should be implemented and instead of contract workers in industrial enterprises, 70 per cent of the workforce should comprise of the unemployed persons of Uttarakhand.
We had earlier planned to gherao the Chief Minister on November 21 but have changed the plan and will now rally to the Vidhan Sabha on November 24. We will rally to elicit focus on the need for provision of basic facilities, electricity and water supply, traffic, education, health facilities, employment and other issues being faced by the people of Uttarakhand especially in the rural mountainous regions,” he said.
On being asked whether pensions for Statehood activists add to the financial burden of the State and should be cancelled, as stated by UKD (Panwar) central general secretary Anup Negi, Raturi said that the government had already decided to provide pensions so the identified activists should benefit. The acting president of the party, Harish Chandra Pathak said that a meeting of various factions and regional bodies will be held on November 18 to discuss the possibility of a united UKD.