Reverse migration' is among the favorite words of the politicians of Uttarakhand with all of them claiming to have elaborate plans for stopping migration from mountainous areas. However the stark fact is that political heavyweights of the State are descending from the mountains and choosing to contest from the Assembly constituencies located in the plains.
The chief minister Harish Rawat who braces himself as one of the most ardent advocates of theory of reverse migration has decided to leave Dharchula a mountainous seat and contest from assembly constituencies of plains this time, Kichha in Udham Singh Nagar district and Haridwar rural in Haridwar district. Following the footsteps of Harish Rawat is Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay who decided to abdicate this traditional constituency of Tehri in favour of Sahaspur in Dehradun. Harak Singh Rawat who is considered a strongman of state politics led a coup against Harish Rawat in the previous year and joined BJP, is contesting from Kotdwar (located in plain) this time leaving the mountainous Rudraprayag constituency in the process. The Netas leaving the very mountains they claim to hold dear and contesting from constituencies located in plain areas is not new in state politics. A heavyweight of state politics, Vijay Bahuguna always boasts that his father Henwati Nandan Bahuguna was a Himalaya Putra (Son of Himalaya) but when it came to choosing an assembly constituency he opted for Sitarganj in plains of Uham Singh Nagar district.
This time too his son Saurabh Bahuguna is a BJP candidate from Sitarganj constituency. In the elections of 2012 then Congress senior leader now a BJP leader, Yashpal Arya also abdicated his traditional constituency in the hills and contested from Bajpur similarly Amrita Rawat wife of Satpal Maharaj contested from Ramnagar. This time however Satpal Maharaj has thrown his hat from Chaubatakhal a mountainous constituency in Pauri district.
Prominent leader of Chakbandi (land consolidation) movement Ganesh Singh ‘ Garib’ laments that no Neta is really worried about the mountains. He said that the many politicians who have recently migrated to constituencies located in plains did so as they were sure that people in the mountainous area would not vote them now. Garib said that people living in the mountains should identify their real well wishers and not cast their vote to someone who does not live there.
Migration from the mountains has assumed such a dangerous proportion that there are 1053 ‘ghost villages’ from where all inhabitants have migrated out in the state now. An estimated six per cent of total villages of state are abandoned now. Ironically the rate of migration got accelerated after creation of separate state. According to a rough estimate more than 31 lakh people have so far migrated from the mountains to the plains. The effect of migration is manifested in the delimitation of assembly constituencies.
In the assembly delimitation done in the year 2009 as many as eight constituencies in the mountains were dissolved.