A day after the State celebrated its 17th formation day, scores of Statehood activists staged a rally under the banner of Uttarakhand Rajya Nirman Senani Manch in Dehradun on Friday, alleging successive State Governments’ apathy towards their grievances.
led by the outfit’s president Nandaballabh Pandey, they assembled at the martyrs’ memorial in the court campus and demonstrated against the State Government. They said that they are at the receiving end of the State Government’s indifference for years despite their contribution during the Statehood movement.
Meanwhile, the administration deployed adequate police forces to maintain peace during the rally. The rallyists were stopped when they reached the barricade put up at the Secretariat on Subhash Road. After being stopped, they sat on demonstration there. later, the Statehood activists submitted a memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister through an administrative officer.
The protesters said that the State Government is yet to act on its pledge to give them 10 per cent horizontal reservation in the Government services. Their seven-point charter of demands include Garisain being declared the permanent capital of the state, steps to check migration from the hills to the plains and punishment to those who perpetrated the Rampur Tihara mayhem on October 2 1994.
An association member Sushila Nainwal said that whatsoever the statehood activists had dreamt about the state has not been fulfilled so far. “Youths are unemployed and they are compelled to migrate to other places in search of jobs from their native places,” he said, adding that they would further intensify their stir unless the State Government meets their demands immediately.