During the tenure of PV Narasimha Rao as India’s Prime Minister, the creation of Uttarakhand as a union territory was appearing imminent when this idea was opposed strongly by some politicians much to the disappointment of Statehood activists led by Indramani Badoni. The former chairperson of State women’s commission Sushila Balooni said this while speaking at launch of a Jan Samvad Yatra being undertaken by Uttarakhand natives living out of the State under the Hastakshep initiative in Dehradun on Friday.
Balooni said, “When a group of Statehood activists led by Indramani Badoni were in communication with the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, we were close to realising the creation of Uttarakhand as a Union Territory.
On finding Badoni crestfallen the next day, we read the cause for it- a newspaper headline proclaiming strong opposition to creation of a union territory by the present chief minister Harish Rawat. Badoni’s soul must be pained considering the condition of Uttarakhand since its creation as a State,” she said. The Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RlEK) chairman Avdhash Kaushal appreciated the initiative to elicit communication on vital issues pertaining to Uttarakhand. “In the duration of more than a decade since creation of Uttarakhand, the state has had half a dozen chief ministers with some occupying office only for some months.
While the people including forest dependent communities were deprived of any rights over the State’s forests, land and water, public money was being expended on providing residence, police security, staff and vehicles among other facilities to ex chief ministers,” he said. Other personalities various different spheres also expressed their views on the occasion, lambasting corruption in its various forms damaging Uttarakhand, the degeneration in level of polity and communication among community members and between the public and political executive.
It is pertinent to mention here that natives of Uttarakhand settled in places including Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab and other areas across the nation and abroad have come together to undertake the Hastakshep initiative.