Following the demand of Uttarkashi residents who have been staging protest against the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, the Harish Rawat Cabinet has decided to appeal to the Union Government to cancel the ESZ notification with immediate effect. For this the State Government has also decided to convene an all-party meeting to finalise the strategy for taking the matter with the Union Government. Besides, the Cabinet has decided to send a delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Environment & Forests Minister Prakash Javdekar regarding this issue.
In an informal chat with the media, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that on one hand, the Centre and the State Government are prodding the people to dream of development and, the other hand, they are putting spanner in the way of development by declaring Uttarkashi an ESZ. If implemented, it would deprive the people of their traditional means of livelihood.
The CM further said that the two natural resources and strengths of the State are forest and river water. Both are closely linked to environment and thus heavily regulated. Thus the economy of the State gets severely affected, as the full potential of the State cannot be harnessed. The eco-sensitive zone notification for an area covering 4197.59 sq km has caused a lot of resentment and discouragement in the State in its developmental works. These needs to be reassessed and a balance between concerns of the State on economic development and ecological management must be ensured.
The closure of the hydro-power projects in the name of ESZ is a political conspiracy. He mentioned that had these hydro-power projects - Pala Maneri (480 MW), Bhairoghati (381 MW) and loharinagpala hydro project (600 MW) - been made functional it would have helped the State to solve the problem of electricity deficit. Besides, it would have provided the local residents a source of employment. However, after spending crores, these projects have been stalled midway in the name of ESZ involving the region from Gomukh to Uttarkashi.