Home to hundreds of “ghost villages”, Uttarakhand is now seeking to repopulate its hamlets through a campaign that is the brainchild of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The chief minister Thursday launched a campaign on social media -- #SelfieFromMyVillage -- to check mass exodus from the hilly terrains and promote reverse migration.
“The migration issue keeps cropping up from time to time. It is rightly expected of the government to work towards checking the migration and we are committed to deal with the issue,” Rawat said on his official Twitter handle.
Rawat made an appeal to all the people hailing from Uttarakhand but living in other state or outside country to visit their native villages during the summer vacations. “One thing each person who has been associated with this state can do this summer. I request everyone with connections in villages of Uttarakhand to visit their respective villages alongwith their kids,” Rawat said on Twitter.
{{/usCountry}}Rawat made an appeal to all the people hailing from Uttarakhand but living in other state or outside country to visit their native villages during the summer vacations. “One thing each person who has been associated with this state can do this summer. I request everyone with connections in villages of Uttarakhand to visit their respective villages alongwith their kids,” Rawat said on Twitter.
{{/usCountry}}The chief minister said that such visits would “help your kids forge a bond with your ancestral village & will help connect with those left behind.”
“Do share pictures of you and your kids using hashtag #SelfieFromMyVillage. Every picture will help bring out a completely different aspect of Uttarakhand,” he added.
In 17 years of its existence, Uttarakhand has remained witness to constant mass migration, leaving several villages uninhabited mostly due to lack of basic infrastructure like roads, hospitals and schools. Most of these “ghost villages”, with their crumbling houses and overgrown vegetation, are located in the hill districts.
Rawat further asked the “pravasi Uttarakhandis” to invite friends and families “to accompany you on your bonding trip to your villages & help Uttarakhand”.
The campaign drew immediate response on social media with several people uploading photographs from their native villages in the hill state and tagging the CM.
A Twitter user, Yogesh Dhami, uploaded several photos of snow clad mountains and the terrain of his native Kanda village in Bageshwar district. Stating that the photos are neither from Switzerland nor Kashmir, Dhami also urged others to visit his village.