The level of public discontent in Pauri is rising because a year after Agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat announced that the Agriculture directorate would be shifted to Pauri, nothing has been done to facilitate this yet.
However, the minister told The Pioneer that the matter is being processed and also acknowledged that the shifting of the directorate to Pauri is being opposed by some MlAs of the plains. Former Uttarakhand Sports Council vice chairman Jaspal Singh Negi said that the Government Order for the shifting the agriculture directorate to Pauri had been issued in 2005 considering which the Cabinet doesn’t need to take a decision on it but simply implement it.
Negi questioned why the Government had spent crores of rupees on the construction of the directorate building in Dehradun in spite of Government Order being issued for its shifting to Pauri years ago. It is pertinent to mention that the locals and various organisations under the banner of Pauri Bachao Sangharsh Samiti had launched a massive agitation in support the establishment of agriculture directorate in Pauri.
A delegation of this committee had met the then Chief Minister ND Tiwari in 2005 who had assured that according to the GO, the directorate would be shifted to Pauri in six months. The people of Pauri and adjoining areas are annoyed at the apathetic attitude of the State Government. They state that people of this region had played an instrumental role in the Statehood agitation but since creation of Uttarakhand in 2000, the regional headquarters Pauri is being neglected by the authorities.
The locals criticise the politicians opposing the shifting of the directorate to Pauri and though they praise Rawat for taking a stand on this issue, they opine that due to political pressure, the minister is not making determined efforts to ensure that the directorate is shifted to Pauri as ordered in 2005.