Uttarakhand 2022: BJP returns to power, disasters take their toll, ecological concerns abound

PTI, Dec 26, 2022, 11:11 AM IST

The BJP’s gamble in Uttarakhand on Pushkar Singh Dhami worked. Just months before the assembly polls, the party installed him as the chief minister, replacing Tirath Singh Rawat. And in February, the BJP won a second successive term in the state known for booting out the party in power in every time.

Dhami, however, lost his own Khatima seat and had to wait for a bypoll to confirm his appointment as CM.

Politics aside, 2022 was a year of disasters — a road accident that killed 33, an avalanche that took at least 27 lives and a helicopter crash on the Kedarnath pilgrimage route. The government also faced the heat over past recruitment scams, concerns over ecology resurfaced, and the murder of a hotel receptionist brought people out on to the streets.

The BJP government that returned to power with a shrunken majority – 47 seats compared to 57 in a House of 70 in 2017, Congress got just 19 – got down to business quickly.

At its very first meeting, the state cabinet cleared a proposal to constitute a committee of experts to draft a Uniform Civil Code, fulfilling an election commitment. The panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai received 2.5 lakh suggestions within months. Its tenure was recently extended by another six months till May 2023.

The government also introduced a stricter anti-conversion law, taking a cue from other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh. Religious conversions through force or allurement are now a non-bailable offence that can invite a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Another major legislation passed by the state assembly granted 30 per cent reservation in government jobs to women domiciled in the state, an issue that has been before the courts earlier.

Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission faced flak over three alleged scams, involving exam paper leaks. A special investigation team probed the allegations and 45 people, including senior UKSSSC officials, were arrested.

Dhami stressed that the scams date back to the period when he wasn’t in power. ”They took place in 2014-16. We are only cleaning up the system by getting them investigated and sending the guilty behind bars,” he said.

Also, Speaker Ritu Khanduri set up a panel of former bureaucrats to probe alleged irregularities in recruitment to the Vidhan Sabha secretariat. On its recommendation, 228 appointments were scrapped.

The murder of a young receptionist, allegedly by the owner of the resort near Rishikesh she worked at, triggered outrage. The father of the owner was a BJP leader, an embarrassment for the party which later suspended him.

The resort owner had allegedly tried to push 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari into sex with guests who stayed at the resort — and killed her when she refused. The opposition also accused the state government of trying to shield an unnamed VIP.

In October, disaster struck at 17,000 feet. Twenty-nine mountaineers trekking back from Draupadi ka Danda peak in Uttarkashi district were struck by an avalanche. It took a massive multi-agency effort to retrieve the bodies of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering team members, two of whom are yet to be traced.

Around the same time, a bus packed with ‘baraatis’ fell into a deep gorge in Pauri district, killing 33 people. Later the same month, a helicopter ferrying pilgrims on Char Dham Yatra crashed in Kedarnath, killing all seven on board.

A full-scale Char Dham Yatra was held after a gap of two years due to the Covid pandemic. This time, over 61 lakh pilgrims visited the four shrines spots, breaking past records.

There was also an unusually high number of deaths among the pilgrims. Altogether, 281 Char Dham pilgrims died this year, mostly due to cardiac arrest – a big jump from 2019 (90 deaths), 2018 (102) and 2017(112).

Twenty-people died in leopard attacks between January and November as the man-animal conflict continued in the hill state. The forest department killed four man-eater leopards.

There was controversy over construction activity in forest areas. The Forest Survey of India reported that over 6,000 trees were felled illegally to start a tiger safari at Pakhro in Corbett Tiger Reserve, instead of just 163 the state had told the Union Forest Ministry about while seeking permission for the project.

There was concern over development projects that could possibly pose a threat to the Himalayan ecology.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) disapproved of black-topping the Laldhang-Chillarkhal road, saying it serves as a wildlife corridor between Rajaji and Corbett tiger reserves and its natural ambience should be maintained.

Also, environmentalist Ravi Chopra resigned as chairman of a Supreme Court-appointed panel on Char Dham all-weather road project.

He quit when the apex court modified its earlier order and allowed the widening of three stretches of the road from 5.5 metres to 10 metres, apparently ignoring his recommendations. Chopra said it was “pointless” being on the panel.