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Uttarakhand commission recommends masterplan for summer capital Gairsain
Garsain was one of the areas in the hill district of Chamoli which saw significant migration of locals to other states.
The Uttarakhand rural development and migration commission’s report has recommended that a masterplan be prepared for the development of Garsain, the recently declared summer capital of the state in Chamoli district.
The report stated that Garsain was one of the areas in the hill district which saw significant migration of locals to other states.
The migration commission’s 95-page report on Chamoli district was released by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat here on Friday. HT has a copy of the report.
On June 8 this year, the hill town of Gairsain in Chamoli district officially became the summer capital of Uttarakhand. In a surprise move in his budget speech on March 4, chief minister Rawat had announced that Gairsain located about 260 km east of Dehradun, will be the summer capital of Uttarakhand. Gairsain as the state’s capital has been a hot political issue between the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress for a long time.
The migration commission’s report apart from listing the details about migration in Chamoli has also come up with recommendations on how to strengthen the rural economy in the hill district to check migration of people, especially the need to combine the indigenous Himalayan skill sets with modern technology to enhance productivity and quality that will ultimately lead to the better profit earning.
According to the report, in 10 years prior to 2018, around 32,000 people have migrated from the district’s 556 villages on a temporary basis while 14,289 people have migrated from 373 villages on a permanent basis. The report also points out that 42% of the people who have migrated were in the 26 to 35 age group.
Some of the recommendations made in the report include efforts be made to strengthen the rural economy in the district, employment avenues be created at the local level to check migration, horticulture be promoted as the scope for traditional crops is limited, basic facilities like roads, electricity, water supply be ensured in villages, tourism be promoted in a big way in the district, including its bordering areas with China, locals be trained in various skill sets which can help them in finding employment and so on.
The chief minister said the report will help the state government to provide basic facilities, increase employment opportunities and stop migration to other states. Rawat said stress should be laid on identifying people who can be provided jobs in their districts under Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana. He said the state government has already formed a cell for this. He said the focus of the government is to provide employment to people as a large number of people have returned to the state during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to SS Negi, vice chairman Uttarakhand rural development and the migration commission, this is the fifth report that they have come up with. “We have prepared detailed reports about four districts so far that include Tehri (June 2020), Almora (June 2019), Pithoragarh (October 2019) and Pauri (April 2018)”, he said.
Migration from rural areas in Uttarakhand is a serious problem with a comparison between 2001 and 2011 census data showing a very slow decadal growth of population in most of the mountain districts of the state, according to the Commission. The data analyzed by the Commission points towards a positive rate of decadal increase in the population of districts like Dehradun, US Nagar, Nainital and Haridwar while negative in Pauri, Almora, Tehri, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh districts.
