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uttarakhand
The state government has promised 70,000 jobs to the unemployed youth and sops to every section of state government employees despite heavy financial burden. However, the crucial issues related to the overall development of the state that needed immediate attention have been relegated to the background. The decision of the Ganga River Basin Authority to declare the 135 km stretch of the Bhagirathi river from Gaumukh to Uttarakashi as eco-sensitive zone and stop all three major hydro-electric projects has put a spanner in the plans of the Uttarakhand Government to turn the state into a major power-supplying state. At the time of the formation of the state in November, 2000, the hydroelectric potential of the state was estimated at 20,000 MW of power and billed as the major thrust area for development. The state at that time had a total generation capacity of 1100 MW of power from existing hydroelectric projects. But the ecological, religious and social concerns about large hydroelectric projects have long evaporated and the state is forced to buy power from other states.
Trouble for the hydropower sector started in June 2008, when environmentalist Prof. G. D. Agarwal started his fast unto death in protest against hydroelectric projects on the Bhagirathi river citing the sentiments of Hindu community which revered the river as sacred. He argued that putting the Bhagirathi river in tunnels will not only destroy the eco-system of the river but will also hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. He got ample support from Hindu organisations, particularly the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Under pressure from the party high command,`A0the then`A0 Chief Minister Maj-Gen B. C. Khanduri (retd), a bit reluctantly, stopped two of the major power projects namely 480 MW Pala Maneri and 381 MW Bhairon Ghati phase-I and phase-II upstream of Uttarakashi on the Bhagirathi river. Agarwal, then, started another fast unto death to stop work on the Lohari Nagpala project being built by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Apprehensive of the approaching Lok Sabha elections of 2009, the Union Government stopped work on the project despite having spent Rs 800 crore on it. The Uttarakhand BJP government focussed its attention on having smaller hydroelectric projects but the entire process of giving tenders of 56 such projects was mired in controversy following the allegations of corruption and favouritism forcing the state government to cancel the contracts as the matter went to the high court.
With industrialisation and urban development of the Terai regions of Hardwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar districts, the power demand has sky rocketed and the Chief Minister has demanded 2000 MW of free power from the Centre in lieu of the cancellation of power projects. The financial health of the state is also not sound and the gap between the plan and non-plan expenditure has been increasing with each passing year. The burden of arrears of new pay scales and pensions to its employees, increasing establishment expenses has led to non-plan expenditure crossing Rs 10,000 crore mark out of a total budget of Rs 14,000 crore`A0 approximately, leaving little room for the state government to have funds for developmental schemes for which the state was formed. Besides pragmatic policies, the state needs to harness its resources and put brakes on wasteful expenditure and reining in its bureaucrats. Following widespread death and destruction during the monsoon and cloudbursts in August-September, 2010, there should be concerted efforts by the state government to rebuild the damaged private as well as government infrastructure. Politics over the issue between state government and the Union Government has left the victims high and dry. The state government had demanded Rs 21,000 crore from the Union Government as grant for relief but got only Rs 500 crore as interim relief. There have been even reports of its inadequate disbursement. Some of the relief money was even diverted for holding South Asian Federation (SAF) winter games at Auli in Chamoli district. Another major area having tremendous potential was tourism where the state could have excelled with its pristine beauty of peaks, hills and mountains, serene valleys, astonishingly beautiful meadows, forests and wildlife. But in the past decade, the state could not claim any substantial progress in building tourism infrastructure in the state. Interestingly, as per official data, Uttarakhand has a growth rate of 9.3 per cent against 5.5 per cent at the time of formation of the state. This can be attributed to the phenomenonal increase of industry in the state following central tax benefits of excise concession and incentives by the state government enjoyed by industry till March 31, 2010. A lot of big industrial houses set up shop here with an estimated investment of Rs 17,000 crore. But still, the efforts of the state government to bring industry to the hills has failed miserably. Even though more than 60 per cent of the population of the state is dependent on agriculture, its share in the gross state domestic product ( GSDP) has come down to 23.4 per cent now from 38.8 per cent at the time of the creation of the state. Primarily, the struggle for a separate state of Uttarakhand was launched in protest against the marginalisation of the hills in developmental activities. But even after a decade of its existence, people living in the hills are more disillusioned and disappointed. The rate of migration from the hills is also unabated.
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the
The recent decision of
the Ganga River Basin Authority to declare the 135-km stretch of the
Bhagirathi as eco-sensitive zone has also dealt a severe blow to the
efforts of the state government to tap the hydroelectric potential of
its rivers on the lines of the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh. The
confusion about a right strategy on hydroelectric potential continues
and needs to be sorted out.