It is due to the struggles of and sacrifices made by the statehood activists that the State of Uttarakhand was created. Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said this after paying homage to statehood activists at the Rampur Tiraha memorial in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on the anniversary of the Rampur Tiraha shooting on Wednesday.
Rawat said, “The first shooting took place in Khatima on September 1, 1994 in which Bhawan Singh, Pratap Singh, Dharmanand Bhatt, Gopichand, Paramjit Singh and Rampal Singh were killed. The second incident took place in Mussoorie wherein Madan Mohan Manga, Dhanpat Singh, Belmati Chauhan, Hansa Dhanai, Balvir Singh Negi and police circle officer Umakant Tripathi were killed. When we mention the statehood movement, that scene of October 2 comes to mind when Statehood activists were going to Delhi when Surya Prakash Thapliyal, Rajesh Lakheda, Ravindra Rawat, Rajesh Negi, Satendra Singh Chauhan, Girish Bhadri, Ashok Kumar, Ompal, Atul Tyagi, Ramgopal and Pankaj Tyagi were killed. Additionally, many young men and women made sacrifices for creation of the state. As a result of this, Uttarakhand state was formed on November 9, 2000,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the demand for the mountain state of Uttarakhand had been raised long ago. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave the people a gift in the form of the mountain state of Uttarakhand.
While he gave the State an industustrial package, the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has worked to enhance connectivity in the State. The real tribute to those who died in the statehood movement would be to work towards building the state they had dreamed of.
He said that 58 rural growth centres had been approved for development of mountainous regions. The state government is attempting to turn rural areas into major centres of economic activity.
The Chief Minister also visited the martyrs’ memorial at the Kachehri in Dehradun and paid tributes to those who had lost their lives in the statehood movement.
He reiterated that the State Government is committed to work towards achieving the level of development for which the statehood activists made sacrifices. He also spoke about the various executed and planned developmental works in the State.