On the 22nd anniversary of the Khatima incident and eve of the anniversary of Mussoorie shooting incident during the statehood movement, tributes were paid to the victims by politicians and others including those demanding various benefits for having participated in the statehood movement.
The people of Uttarakhand including veteran activists and the intelligentsia have however stressed on the need for decisive measures based on State-centric issues to prevent further deterioration in the socio-economic, environmental and cultural aspects which have been deteriorating since creation of the state.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay and the Uttarakhand Rajya Nirman Andolankari Samman Parishad vice chairman Dhirendra Pratap among others paid homage to those killed in the Khatima and Mussoorie shootings while stressing that their sacrifices will not be forgotten by the people of Uttarakhand. However, the general public sentiment especially in the mountainous region of Uttarakhand, is that of disillusionment considering the failure of successive state governments to facilitate the desired level of development in the mountainous areas which was among the main reasons for people demanding statehood.
Observers point out that politicians and those occupied in ‘activism’ have been paying customary tributes to the people who died in the Khatima incident and Mussoorie incident for more than two decades now without achieving much towards fulfilling the envisioned developmental aspects for which the people lost their lives.
“The scenario has deteriorated to such an extant that the statehood movement has now become more of a basis for people demanding various facilities and preferencial treatment from the government. Groups of people claiming to be statehood activists have been demonstrating for years in support of their demands, forgetting that the aim of the statehood movement was creation of Uttarakhand state for facilitating development in the mountainous region and not the provision of preferential treatment to selected people,” said a veteran statehood activist wanting to remain anonymous citing the politicization of statehood movement.
It will be recalled that on September 1, 1994, police firing indiscriminately on demonstrators demanding statehood in Khatima had resulted in seven deaths. This was followed by the Mussoorie incident onSeptember 2 wherein about half a dozen people were killed in firing by Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel.