The economic question

A majority of the Sikhs are against the move. Their links with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab hasworked wonders for them. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, who along with a few of his ministers like B.S. Huda, own huge farm houses in the region, have exercised their bargaining power (two ministers and eight MPs) and orchestrated a joint move with the tacit support of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party for keeping Udham Singh Nagar out of the proposed state.

The noise raised by the SAD once again puts a question mark on the creation of Uttaranchal. The UP Assembly had, in 1990, 1992 and 1994, passed three resolutions while the Union Cabinet cleared the Bill last year.

“The Sikh populace in the region apprehend that with a new government taking over in the proposed state, their large acres will be usurped as per the provisions of the Land Ceiling Act. A few of the Sikh families own thousands of acres of farm land besides rice and sugar mills in Punjab. They are using their connections in Punjab to keep the district out of the periphery of the state,” Balraj Pasi, former BJP MP told TheIndian Express, adding that the SAD demand was illogical and unjustified.

But Harbhajan Singh Cheema, president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Akali Dal counters: “When we came here after Independence, we were told that our requests for allotting 50 acres of land would not be conceded unless we were ready to take 500 acres. After all these years, when we have turned marshy and forest land fertile through our hard labour, we are described as the land mafia.”

It, however, is a fact that some Akali families of Punjab, besides their local counterparts, own considerable land in Udham Singh Nagar. Several surveys conducted by the UP Revenue Department have revealed that the holdings of big farmers are in much excess to the norms of the Land Ceiling Act and that most of the land is registered under fake names. Moreover, the nexus between land holders and Revenue Department officials has ensured that no action is taken against them.

Mayawati tried initiating one such move in 1997 but even then, thePunjab chief minister exerted pressure on top BJP leaders because the party was a coalition partner of the BSP in UP and managed to persuade Mayawati not to enforce the Act.

Besides the fear of losing land, the Sikhs also apprehend that once Uttaranchal becomes reality, their political clout would automatically vanish. “People from the plains will be outnumbered by pahadis in the new state because the expected ratio is 80:20, meaning that we will always remain in a minority, having no say in policy making and running the adminstration,” says Rajesh Shukla, general secretary of the Udham Singh Nagar Bachao Samiti.

“The proposed state will have 12 districts, 11 of them are situated in the hills and only Udham Singh Nagar is situated in the plains. Why shouldn’t this also be excluded, as Udham Singh Nagar is a complete contrast to the culture, economy and geographical proportions of the hill districts,” asks Surendra Taneja, who owns a PCO booth at Rudrapur.

But will it be viable for the proposed stateto do away with Udham Singh Nagar? Annual tax collection of hill districts is a meager Rs 179 crore out of which Udham Singh Nagar has a considerable share. The per capita income here is the highest in UP and fertility of the land is even better than that in Punjab. The region is the bedrock of hill economy which otherwise survives on seasonal tourism and money orders. With 300 rice mills, more than 100 industrial units including a few major ones like Sriram Honda and two subsidiaries of Maruti Udyog Limited doing business here, the proposed state cannot afford to do away with the district.

The BJP Government at the Centre and the state also cannot delay the creation of the new state. The party grabbed 17 of the 19 Assembly segments in the hills and all the four MPs also belong to the BJP. Creation of Uttaranchal is a political compulsion for the BJP which won the elections here with the promise of creating the separate state within 100 days of coming to power at the Centre.

But now, doubts are beingraised over the BJP Government’s intention of creating the new state. “The demand for not including Udham Singh Nagar is being raised by a handful of people and they are being encouraged by BJP leaders,” alleges Kashi Singh Airi, president of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. He threatened that residents of Uttarakhand would march to New Delhi if the BJP Government bowed to the pressure from the SAD.

The Cabinet sub-committee formed by the Kalyan Singh government had earlier recommended that Udham Singh Nagar be a part of Uttaranchal but later its members backtracked. “We have left the decision on Udham Singh Nagar to the Centre,” Naresh Agarwal, energy minister and a member of the committee told The Indian Express. Now it is up to Atal Behari Vajpayee to solve the problem.

Differing Voices