leaders of various political parties were arrested by the police when they tried to walk to Forest Research Institute (FRI) to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding implementation of Forest Rights Act in the State, reservation for Uttarakhand natives in Central Government jobs and other demands.
During the early morning hours of Thursday, while a large number of people were excited to participate in the International Day of Yoga programme with the Prime Minister, a number of people from across the State along with politicians were preparing to walk to FRI and submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister with various demands. Headed by former president of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), Kishore Upadhyay, people of the State and politicians from other parties under the banner of Van Adhikar Andolan were to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister listing various demands. They stated that they had been seeking time from the Prime Minister for the past 15 days to communicate their demands for providing reservation to Uttarakhand natives in Central Government jobs and implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the State. The group congregated at Gandhi Park in the early morning and walked towards FRI but were apprehended by the police near the Clock Tower. They were taken to the police lines where they were held for some time.
About 55 members of the group were held by the police and later released on personal bonds after the programme at FRI concluded.
While in police custody, the group members complained that during his Dehradun visit, the Prime Minister could not spare even two minutes to meet the people of Uttarakhand listen to their grievances.
They questioned what the general public of Dehradun gained from the Prime Minister's visit. Crores of rupees were spend and precious time of the administration was wasted on the show, they opined. They, further, stressed that the movement in support of the demand for the traditional forest rights of the people of Uttarakhand will be stepped up. Along with Upadhyay, PCC vice president Jot Singh Bisht, Samar Bhandari of Communist Party of India, Satya Narayan Sachan of the Samajwadi Party, Gopal Krishna of Chetna Andolan, historian Jai Prakash 'Uttarakhandi', PCC chief spokesman Mathura Dutt Joshi, Rajiv Jain, Amarjeet Singh and various others were among the 55 persons held by the police temporarily.