With the Opposition and the ruling party bickering at Gairsain over the need to immediately announce Gairsain as the permanent capital of the State, the youths from Dehradun, by and large, are favouring the idea. Most of the youths, this correspondent talked to, said that Uttarakhand being a mountain State, the capital should be shifted from Dehradun to Gairsain. This would facilitate the desired level of development in the mountainous regions, opine the youth. Ruchi Panwar , a resident of lakshmi Road, said the sooner the decision is taken the better.
“When Dehradun was made the capital the government said that many companies would come up here. But the promise has remained unfulfilled. Besides, Dehradun being the capital is becoming more and more congested. Volume of traffic increasing by leaps and bounds is resulting in traffic snarls. level of pollution is on the spiral, leaving the atmosphere hard to breathe in,” she said.
Echoing the same view, Gaurav Thalwal, a student, said the capital getting shifted to Gairsain would make life easier for those living in the districts like Chamoli , Rudraprayag and Pauri . “The sad fact is that most of the leaders and the bureaucrats running the State from Dehradun have hardly any idea of the problems the people from the mountainous regions are facing in their day-to-day life. This amounts to ridiculing the logic that resulted in Uttarakhand being carved out of Uttar Pradesh,” he added.
Shailja Rana, a social activist, said Gairsain being made the permanent capital would take development to the far-flung areas in the hills which have been vegetating for a long time.
However, some opine that shifting the capital would complicate things further. “The new capital needs huge investment of money, time and other resources. But if these are spent in Dehradun it would accelerate growth, infrastructure development and better connectivity,” said Prashant Hindwan, a student.
Yashaswini Rawat , a law student, said that the transfer of capital would make life difficult for the people here. “We would have to ascend the hills to have even the minor things done. Besides, the State would suffer in terms of quality education as most of the celebrated schools are located in Dehradun,” she added.