The people of Uttarakhand, who are still battling hard with their perennial concerns of migration, unemployment and poverty, seem to be still pinning hopes on the State Government with 2014 having just passed to usher in 2015. The question is-are such expectations justified, given the fact that the State Government is lacking the will to boost things upIJ
The State Government, for reasons best known to it, has consigned its big-ticket industrial expansion project in the form of the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand limited (SIIDCUl) phase-II onto the backburner. Viewed realistically, Uttarakhand seems to have little to remember and more to forget as far as 2014 is concerned.
If the bygone year is to be remembered it is all for the wrong reasons. A string of heart-wrenching incidents befell the region that year. The rape and murder of a minor girl in Haldwani, Nainital, happened when the year was ending. It was preceded by communal tension in Nainital's Ramnagar in March when someone uploaded some objectionable contents on Facebook. It was followed by another grim incident in September- a student attempted self-immolation and later died of burns in the same region.
The common refrain running in the region is that the State Government has failed on both counts of law and order and development. According to the Kumaon watchers, the SIIDCUl phase –II, if implemented, could have gone a long way in boosting its economic prospects aside from employing thousands of youths, thus arresting the grim trend of migration.
Notably, the then Vijay Bahuguna Government nodded industrial expansion in the form of SIIDCUl phase-II to be developed at Sitarganj, Udham Singh Nagar in 2012-2013.