The State Government has done nothing apart from issuing hollow assurances in response to the long standing demand for declaring the Joshimath area a backward area in Chamoli district. Irked at the political class for neglecting their demand for many years, people from various villages in the Joshimath area took out a protest rally here on Monday.
The protest organisers also said that in case the State Government does not declare Joshimath a backward area soon, the people will boycott the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections.
The long standing demand for declaring Joshimath a backward area has so far elicited only announcements by the government which has left people of the region disillusioned with the government.
Men and women from various villages in the Joshimath development block participating in the protest on Monday, said that the demand for declaring Joshimath a backward area is being raised since 1967 but the successive state governments have done nothing concrete towards meeting this demand.
The Pichda Kshetra Sangharsh Samiti head Ramesh Chandra Sati said that if the required government order is not issued soon to meet the long standing demand, the people of the region will undertake an intense movement apart from which the public would also boycott the Vidhan Sabha elections slated to be held in 2017.
It will be recalled that during the tenure of Vijay Bahuguna as the chief minister during 2012-2014, a survey report had been sought from the Chamoli district magistrate regarding the demand for inclusion of people of Joshimath in the Other Backward Classes on the basis of social, economic and educational backwardness.
The sub divisional magistrate had submitted the 48-page report along with recommendations to the state administration in 2014.
However, the file in this case has been pending with the state administration since then. later, the regional MlA from Badrinath, Rajendra Bhandari, while attending a programme at Urgam after his recent induction into the state cabinet had to face angry locals miffed at the government continuing to ignore their demand.
The locals had also submitted a memorandum addressed to the CM through the sub divisional magistrate on their demand.
Meanwhile, the BJP is trying to derive political mileage from this issue by cornering the Congress-led State Government.
Former district head of the BJP, Vinod Kaparwan said that he had raised the issue with the party’s top leadership and national vice president.
It is pertinent to mention here that as per the set procedure, report submitted by district administration to the Uttarakhand OBC Commission would be followed by the commission organising a public hearing before submitting its report to the State Government on the issue.
After approval from the State cabinet, the report is supposed to be sent to the National Commission for Backward Classes.