After two decades of wait, Gairsain made Uttarakhand’s summer capital
When the agitation for a separate state was going on, the people of Garhwal and Kumaon had unanimously decided that Gairsain should be the state capital since it straddles both the regions
NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand will have Bhararisen (Gairsain) in Chamoli district as the summer capital, while Dehradun remains the temporary state capital.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had announced the decision of making Gairsain the summer capital during the budget session in March, but the move was implemented on Monday after governor Baby Rani Maurya gave assent.
Senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Gairsain was chosen as the summer capital because it has been a longstanding demand of the people of Uttarakhand. The demand has been backed by years of protests by activists, seeking higher representation for hill areas of the state.
"When the agitation for a separate state was going on, the people of Garhwal and Kumaon regions had unanimously decided that Gairsain should be the state capital since it is located in the middle of both the prominent regions. Since then there was a constant demand to make Gairsain the state capital," said a senior BJP leader based in Dehradun.
With a total 13 districts in Uttarakhand, 11 are hill districts while two are in the plains. "How will people in power and bureaucrats know the difficulties of people if they do not live in hilly region? The idea was to make Gairsain as the state capital so that it is approachable to both Kumaon and Garhwal region and this will lead to development of the entire hilly region of the state," added the BJP leader.
BJP, which defeated Congress to wrest power in the state in 2017 assembly elections, had promised making Gairsain the summer capital in its manifesto. A news report by Press Trust of India, quoting Rawat, said work on creating an e-assembly at Gairsain was in progress so that files need not be taken there and sessions are conducted paperless.
Political analysts believe while the Uttarakhand government may have announce a populist move, it may not necessarily solve the problem of hilly regions.
"We all know there is a region-wise divide in the state. While this decision may be an attempt to develop the state but it may not yield result since summer capital would not be more than a few months. While Dehradun may be a temporary capital, it is now probably the permanent capital," said Annapurna Nautiyal, vice chancellor of Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Srinagar.
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