Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said that for sustainable development, there was a need to maintain a balance with the environment. All the development and rehabilitation work in Uttarakhand would be done in consultation with scientists.
He reiterated the need for formulating a composite policy for all Himalayan regions and constitution of a ‘Himalayan States Development Authority’. He made these statements while addressing in a seminar “esurgent Uttarakhand’, which was jointly organised by Uttarakhand Government and media house, at India Habitat centre, New Delhi on Friday.Union Minister Rural Development Jairam Ramesh delivered the key note.
He added that all concerned would have to ensure that the State did not compromise on its economic and social development in order to conserve the environment and ecology. He reminded that the State had taken several significant measures after the disaster and the number of tourists in the State would be regulated in the future.
He declared that separate routes would be constructed to and fro at all the dhaams. Construction along the rivers had been totally banned. Describing the relief and rehabilitation works, the CM asserted that compensation had been provided in 96 percent of the cases in the State. In spite of adverse conditions, the government had distributed relief in every village in the State.
Union Minister Jairam Ramesh supported the Chief Minister Bahuguna and declared that a balance had to be maintained between natural resource utilisation and development. If States like Uttarakhand were prevented from utilisation of natural resources because of environmental concerns, then they needed to be provided compensation. He reminded that he had supported payment of a ‘Green Bonus’ to Uttarakhand for a long time.
The Minister accepted that regulating the number of visitors to pilgrim destinations would pose a challenge. It was, however, important to regulate them because it applied pressure not only on the environment, but also the local infrastructure.
Anil K Gupta, Director, Wadia Institute of Human Geology; VK Duggal, Member, National Disaster Management Authority, NP Todaria, Forest Advisory Committee, HNB Garhwal University, Uttarakhand; Professor Pradipta Banerjee, Director, IIT Roorkee; Shashi Shekhar, Additional Secretary, Environment and Forest Ministry; Founder HESCO, Dr Anil Joshi; Director, Development Alternatives, Dr Ashok Khosla, Senior Fellow, TERI, Dr Pradipto Ghosh; former Director GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Dr lMS Palni; Chief Resident Commissioner Alok Kumar Jain; Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma; Resident Commissioner SD Sharma, Principal Secretary, Forest, S Ramaswamy, Secretary, Tourism, Uttarakhand Umakant Panwar, and DG, Information, R Meenakshi Sundaram were present during the seminar.