Concerned with issues like migration of people from hilly and remote areas of the Himalayan State for greener pastures that goes on unabated for years, the State Government is all set to adopt a multipronged strategy to tackle the same.To arrest continuing migration, we have adopted a seven year plan, said Chief Minister Harish Rawat on the sidelines of the State Congress’s brain-storming session on Wednesday.
In first two years, we would take measures to stop migration. In another two years, the steps would bear fruits and the trend would stop, added the Chief Minister. And in the final three years, we would bring those back who deserted their native places earlier, he stated. Side by side, our focus would be on how to equip the people, particularly in remote and hilly regions, with basic resources.
Promoting hill agriculture is one of the key areas the Government is focused on, he further said. Besides, steps are also being taken to smoothen the basic service sector in the hill areas and to provide quality education to children.In a bid to improve the education sector in hill areas, the Government would constitute a hill cadre in which the education department would appoint teachers on merit basis, he added.
This move when implemented will not just help improve education in the remote areas but also provide jobs to the unemployed youths. Besides, the Government has already taken a host of social welfare measures like pension even for the farmers. Hopefully, we would succeed in squarely meeting the aspirations of the people in times to come, said Rawat.
Mention worthy, migration of people from hilly and remote areas of the state in search of livelihood was one of the key problems that triggered the demand for a separate state in the form of Uttarakhand.The statehood agitators were convinced that the state being formed would end the problem of migration once and for all. But things are bleak even around fifteen years have elapsed since the dream came true.
Moreover, the people migrating leaving behind hearths ad homes in the border areas might pose a serious challenge for the security of the Himalayan State, flanked as it with international frontiers, the observers opine.