INDIA GREENS PARTY
Press Statement
New Delhi, 5 March 2020: The India Greens Party (IGP) has expressed its disappointment over the BJP-led Uttarakhand Government’s decision to declare the town of Gairsain as merely summer capital despite the fact that it has been a long-pending demand of the people to have their state’s capital at Gairsain — a nondescript town some 280 km away from the interim capital of Dehradun nestling in the eastern edge of the vast Dudhatoli mountain range in the district of Chamoli of the state.
It was former Congress Chif Minister Vijay Bahuguna, who had first decided to hold a cabinet meeting at Gairsain in 2012. Mr Bahuguna was replaced by Mr Harish Rawat in 2014 whose government held first Assembly session there, in the tents, and announced a Budget to construct an Assembly building there.
The IGP President Suresh Nautiyal in a press statement issued in the national capital today said the state government’s decision did not meet the expectations of the majority of citizens in the state as they have been demanding for a long time to make Gairsain as state’s permanent capital.
“The BJP-led state government’s decision clearly explains that Dehradun will continue to be the real capital of the state,” he said.
The state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat made the announcement on 4 March 2020 while delivering the Budget speech at Gairsain Vidhan Sabha Bhavan. The Assembly mostly meets in Dehradun, but occasionally sessions — like the current Budget session — are held in Gairsain.
Dehradun is far off from many districts of Uttarakhand, while Gairsain is in the middle of the state and thus has an edge due to its location in the mountains.
The state was carved out of the state of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 after the agitation in favour of a new state saw dozens of people killed in state violence and women molested by the goons of certain political parties in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Nautiyal said that the decision also showed that the state government was not bothered about the sentiments of the people of the state.
“How can they make Gairsain as merely summer capital of the state when they have not made any financial provision for that in the Budget,” he pointed out, adding that the decision smacked of a politically motivated gimmick.
“Long back in 1992, before the formation of the state, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), a regional political party, had raised the demand to make this nondescript town as the capital of future state and name it as Chandranagar in the memory of great freedom fighter Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali who led a rebellion against the British rulers in Peshawar on 23 April 1930 when thousands of people had gathered at Kissa Khani Market in front of the police station there in protest of the British Rule and the demand for Independence. What could have resulted in massive deaths and deep emotional scars was avoided due to the courage of the brave heart Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali. But now, the state government has disappointed the people of the state,” Mr Nautiyal asserted.
-Press Statement issued by the IGP Spokesperson Michael Rajchandra
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