40 years on, Kumaon’s list of woes continues, says political analysts

As the voting dates for Lok Sabha election nears and the political parties continue with their campaigning, Kumaon’s two parliamentary Almora-Pithoragarh and Nainital-US Nagar remain affected by unemployment, hill migration, man-animal conflict and poor health services, Almorabased political analyst Dev Singh Pokharia said on Thursday.

Retired professor Dev Singh Pokharia said, “Governments claim to have been implementing developmental schemes in hill areas but most of them do not exist on the surface. Unemployment, poor health services, loss from wild animals, and lack of teachers have forced hill people to migrate to plain areas.”

He further said that both Congress and BJP have formed governments over the years but issues which were 30-40 years ago still exist. He pointed out that roads are being constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna in remote villages but most of people of those areas have migrated to other areas. He questioned, “Now what is the use of such roads?”

Nainital-US Nagar seat has 21,31,929 voters while there are 13,20,145 voters in the Almora Pithoragarh constituency. Ten candidates are in the fray in Nainital-US Nagar while seven are in the fray from the Almora Pithoragarh seat. The BJP has fielded minister of state for defence and tourism Ajay Bhatt from Nainital-US Nagar seat and sitting MP Ajay Tamta from Almora-Pithoragarh seat. Meanwhile, the Congress has given party symbol to Prakash Joshi from Nainital-US Nagar and Pradeep Tamta Almora-Pithoragarh seat.

Senior advocate in Bageshwar Anju Pandey said, “Unemployment, poor education and health system, man and wild animal conflict, have forced people to migrate them from their villages. Villages have turned into ghost villages. There is no institution which could provide our children technical education so that they could get better jobs.”

“These issues are the root cause of migration in hill areas. Those people are living in remote areas who are not efficient to move from there,” she added.

Pradeep Futela, a resident of Gadarpur, said, “US Nagar has been facing issues like hill areas encroachment, illegal mining, corruption, crime and pollution. The government should pay attention to these issues. People have to send their children to Haldwani, Dehradun, Delhi for technical education.”