Boon or bane?
The presence of green canopy and rivers is usually considered nature’s blessing for any region but it appears that the abundance of forest cover—which is approximately 71 percent of total geographical area —and presence of holy rivers is proving to be more of a burden on the small Himalayan State of Uttarakhand. The environmental and forest issues, coupled with other legal hurdles, have acted as an impediment in the way of developmental projects like Dams, reservoir, roads, hydropower projects and even tourism related activities like trekking, camping and rafting and have halted the forward march of the State. The fact that 24 hydro power projects in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins, the water from whom ultimately coalesce to form mighty and most holy of the rivers Ganga, in the various stages of construction are stalled due to environmental issues. These power projects with a capacity of 2944 MW would have provided the much needed impetus to the economy of the State reeling under the menace of migration. A capital of `1,338 crores has already been spent on these projects but the machinery and other infrastructure created for them is lying in ruins and the repeated attempts of State Government to get the projects cleared have yielded no result. The concerns of greens are genuine, but when one views different (stringent) standard set in place for Uttarakhand and other set of rules for a state like Himachal Pradesh, the veracity of such forces comes under cloud.
Health blues
Alarmed by downgrading of the State done by the NITI Aayog on various parameters of health services and a matching whack given by the National Health Mission (NHM) when it penalised Uttarakhand by 8 points in its ‘Health System Strengthening Conditionality Report’, the top honchos of health department have gone into a huddle. Having mastered the art of finding excuses where none actually exist, these Babus have started giving myriad reasons for the debacle some of which border on raising questions over the veracity of the report. Notwithstanding their empty rhetoric and pretentiousness, the fact remains that the health services in the States are at nadir. Attracted by the lure of jumbo budget, the centrally funded NHM offers, the bureaucrats have clenched on to this agency. It has resulted in a situation where the agency (NHM) which essentially was a supporting system has eventually turned out to be one which actually is calling the shots and that too without owning any responsibility. Over the years, the shrewd bureaucrats have made the position of DG of health services redundant. The manifestation of this systematic weakening of the system has created a situation of delay in decision making and shirking of responsibilities which has got manifested in the poor performance on the indices of the NITI Aayog.
Cosy Babus
Family members of a Babu who once lorded over the Babudom are enjoying the fruits of the power once yielded by their patriarch in the Himalayan State. The privileged family is holding over the possession of a portion of a guest house owned by one of a State-owned corporation, in a posh locality in the National capital from the last five years. This family is not the only blessed one; there are many others who thanks to their connections are either enjoying the comfort of Guest houses, Bungalows and other properties or had lived there for considerable periods of time, in gross violations of all norms. But then the norms are for the lesser mortals and not for the high and mighty.
