 "Uttarakhand polls: Major issues take backseat")
While the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) is mainly seeking votes in the name of the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Congress is harping on local corruption issues and mass appeal of Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
Ahead of the May 7 election, Rawat has started targeting the BJP on corruption issues, referring to the 2010 Kumbh mela issue. He asked the main opposition, the BJP, to tell people on the alleged disappearance of Rs 260 crore from the central funding for Kumbh mela. The main focus of the attack is former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Nishank is facing an intense fight against Renuka, wife of the Rawat from the Haridwar seat. Rawat alleges the former Nishank government had misused or misappropriated these funds. An inquiry commission is already probing the alleged kumbh embezzlement.
Nishank hit back against Rawat saying if there was any misappropriation of funds pertaining to the Kumbh mela, Rawat is also answerable, since he was an MP and a Union minister from Haridwar then.
Rawat has also recommended a CBI probe in the alleged National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam of 2010. “Rawat is targeting Nishank just because he is pitted against his wife, Renuka,” alleged Tirath Singh Rawat, BJP state president.
Political parties are not making much noise on the slow pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation works pertaining to the post mid-June deluge. Despite the government’s assertion that the Chardham yatra, backbone of the Garhwal region’s economy, will be “smooth and safe”, the local business community is not happy with the steps taken so far.
Tour operators, hoteliers and transporters are unanimous in their views that they would face yet another bad season after the last year’s mid-June deluge that brought widespread devastation in the hill state. The losses are going to be huge, they claimed. And yet, the BJP has not made it a big issue in the election.
On the other hand, the issue of permanent capital has also gone unnoticed in the din of the elections. Both the two parties are silent so far even as the government’s efforts to construct a state Assembly building at Gairsain in Chamoli district have failed.
The migration of youths is also not on the agenda of the main political parties, though Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), which has suffered several splits during the past few years, had been raking it up regularly. Unemployment, a related issue, is also missing.
With the hydropower sector facing green concerns, all the political parties are unanimous that the issue should not be touched. “The hydropower is the key growth driver in the hill state. But this is very bad that all the political parties are shying away from the issue,” said Avadhash Kaushal, head of RLEK, a Dehradun-based NGO, spearheading a campaign to harness river water energy in the hill state. Uttarakhand which produces over 3,622Mw of hydropower from various hydel projects, has the potential to generate over 27,040Mw of power, according to the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd.
The issue of jal, jungle and zameen (water, forests and land), dear to social activists, has also not found place in the agenda of both the BJP and Congress.
“These parties are not doing anything as far as Uttarakhand is concern,” said Padamshree Anil Prakash Joshi, the head of HESCO, an NGO.