Uttarakhand Agriculture and Hills land consolidation Minister Harak Singh Rawat inaugurated a land consolidation discussion camp organised by Garib Kranti Abhiyan in the auditorium of the district headquarters at Pauri on Tuesday.
The activists associated with the land consolidation movements from the different parts of Uttarakhand, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are participating in the two- day seminar. They are presenting their views in course of the seminar. The common refrain running through the seminar is that the migration of people from the villages will not stop unless the land consolidation is not enforced in the Uttarakhand, particularly in the hill districts. Minister Rawat also released a book on the movement of land consolidation.
Addressing the seminar, Rawat said that he is in favour of land consolidation. He said the dreams of the activists could be fulfilled through safeguarding the agriculture fields. Rawat said that there were 7766000 hectare agriculture lands in the state. But now the quantum has come down drastically. Despite this, the agriculture production has gone up over the past three years. The agriculture production of the state is 18 lakh metric tonnes, while the demand of the state is only 15 lakh metric tons. last year, the President awarded Rs 25 lakhs to Uttarakhand for the agricultural achievement. The State was awarded too for its achievement in Horticulture. The other states are purchasing wheat seeds from the Uttarakhand despite the higher rates here as compared to Uttar Pradesh. This is because of the high quality, he claimed.
Rawat said that the State has not achieved the required development in the past 14 years since Uttarakhand was carved out. This was because of the lack of development vision of the political leaders as well as the people. We aped Uttar Pradesh’s development model. This was despite the statehood movement being based on separate developmental planning for Uttarakhand known as Dev Bhumi. The main focus was on roads, schools, polytechnics and the like. However, saving agriculture through land consolidation was undermined. This spawned migration from villages located in the hill districts.
Rawat stressed that Uttarakhand can be saved only through land consolidation. However, in the same breath, he said land consolidation should be done according to the laws. Chief Minister Harish Rawat has created three ministries out of which two are related to land consolidation and rain water harvesting. The CM has given him the crucial portfolio of land consolidation. Recently, he asked the chief secretary to frame laws for land consolidation. Rawat said every block has to identify at least one village for land consolidation where 70 percent population desire for land consolidation and this will be implemented in 200 villages across the State.