The year that was…

Successful hosting of Maha Kumbh Mela 2010 was the only silver lining for Uttarakhand in the otherwise difficult year:

Deepti Saxena

A gruesome murder, expiry of concessional industrial package (CIP), closure of three major hydel projects and a couple of alleged scams cast a shadow on the year gone by in Uttarakhand. As the year came to an end, the grisly murder of 33- year-old Anupama Gulati by her software engineer husband sent shock-waves across the country. Rajesh Gulati not only strangled his wife but also cut the body into pieces to hide them in a deep-freezer for nearly two months.

With the Centre allowing the CIP to expire on March 31 last year, a worried Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank made repeated requests to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to extend the hill incentives beyond 2010 on the lines of northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir stating that the move would adversely affect the industrial growth of the backward hill state. In the backdrop of vehement opposition to these concessions by states like Punjab, Haryana and Bihar proving more effective, Nishank's pleas failed to get any fruitful response from the Centre. Religious and environmental concerns took the centre stage against the construction of a series hydel power projects on river Bhagirathi following which the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGBRA) headed by Prime Minister finally decided to scrap three mega projects — 600 MW Lohari Nagpala, 480 MW Pala Maneri and 381 MW Bhaironghati -- all in Uttarkashi district. While Lohari Nagpala was being developed by power major NTPC, other two belonged to state-owned Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL). As the hopes of the people of the state regarding improvement in power supply situation in future diminished with the decision of the NGBRA, the cancellation of allotment of 56 mini hydropower projects worth 960 MW following allegation of corruption became another stumbling block in the path of development in the state.

Despite allegations of widespread irregularities in the allotment process of these mini power projects by Opposition parties in and outside the assembly, the government was maintaining that everything was done in transparent manner as per the 2008 power policy. However, as soon as the matter went in the Uttarakhand High Court, the government hurriedly cancelled the allotment. Another issue that rocked the assembly as well as the streets was the Citurgia housing land scam in Rishikesh.

The successful conduct of the maha kumbh mela was perhaps the only silver lining for the state in 2010 during which development also suffered.