Mamta Kalia

and has acquired the image of a mere
instrument in this vicious circle of
immorality.
If we analyse dispassionately the Five
Year Plans and other economic,
educational and cultural programmes to
find out to what extent they have a
local character, we will discover that
in several plans and programmes the
distinction between the hills and the
plains is not clear and these plains and
programmes prepared in Lucknow or
Delhi have been mechanically made
applicable to the hills. In the absence
of decentralised power, neither a
leadership familiar with the local
conditions or committed to development
of this area has emerged at the village,
block and sub-division levels, nor have
the programmes provided any scope for
contribution of local representatives in
their preparation and execution.
On the administrative plane also no
special effort has been made to build
an appropriate administrative cadre from
amongst the educated community in the
hills. It is unrealistic to expect from
officials born and brought up in the plains
and unfamiliar with the conditions in
the hills and with no attachment with
the hill people any significant effort or
contribution in the development of the
region. This is not to deny that there
are always some officials who provide
the exception to the rule.
What hurts the people in the hills
most is that although Uttarakhand has
44 :: April-June 2010
produced not one but three Chief
Ministers of the State who, in course
of time, also became top leaders of the
country, none of them succeeded in
making any notable particular
contribution in introducing an element
of seriousness in the reconstruction and
development process in Uttarakhand and
accelerate its pace. Uttarakhand has yet
to produce its Dr. Parmar who changed
the very face of H.P. Uttarakhand has
given a lot to the nation in nationallyrenowned
scientists, economists,
administrators and artists also but did
it get from the nation what it should
have. Is this merely an imaginary or
sentimental feeling or does it reflect a
realistic assessment of the situation? This
is a subject deserving deep thinking and
study. Here I am raising a question and
want to awaken the country’s
administrators and intellectuals to the
pain and anger that the shattering of
the dream after independence of a new
and prosperous Uttarakhand – the dream
the people of Uttarakhand had come
to have in the background of the national
movement — has given rise in them.
There is another aspect of the process
of change in Uttarakhand which has given
rise to a great and horrible intellectual
vacuum in the region and that is the
large scale exodus of its gifted educated
people. This exodus is being witnessed
from some other regions also but the
educated section in these regions keep
at least some link with its roots. In
states like Punjab, there is even a