Uttarakhand: Debate over permanent capital intensifies, will many sections of secretariat climb the mountain?

Recently, after the Gairsain session, the debate about the permanent capital has once again intensified. Especially the state agitators and the common people expressed their displeasure over the convening of a session of just two days in Gairsain and raised the voice for a permanent capital. Meanwhile, the news from the Secretariat caught everyone’s attention in the matter. Actually, an attempt has been made to shift about 11 sections of the Uttarakhand Secretariat to the mountain. It starts with the announcement of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, in which he clarified to the secretariat employees that 11 sections would be shifted to Gairsain soon.

The Uttarakhand Secretariat Association also welcomed this announcement of the Chief Minister. But even after the announcement, action has not been taken forward in written form from the government level till now. In view of this, now the Secretariat Association itself has recalled the announcement of the Chief Minister and demanded a decision in this matter soon. Rakesh Joshi, General Secretary of Uttarakhand Secretariat Association, says that the Secretariat Association has welcomed the shifting of all sections to Gairsain, but he now wants to tell all the secretariat officials that to take this process forward, the necessary formalities should be completed in writing so that work can be done on it as soon as possible.

Politics has been happening from time to time regarding Gairsain in the state. The result was that just before the elections, all the governments have also been taking some such decisions on this, which has furthered the debate. In this matter, the Vijay Bahuguna government convened the cabinet in Gairsain for the first time, while the Harish Sarkar government also took steps regarding the infrastructure of the Legislative Assembly and Secretariat. On the other hand, the Trivendra Singh Rawat government declared Gairsain as the summer capital. But even after this, the debate regarding the permanent capital continued.

Recently, the Dhami government convened a session in Gairsain and gave importance to this issue again. However, now the statement of the Secretariat Association has again started a new debate on this matter. The state agitators are welcoming this move of the Dhami government. But he also says that in this case, only the announcement will not work, because such a system will also have to be implemented in Gairsain so that the officers along with the employees live and work in Gairsain.

This will be the first time in the history of Uttarakhand when it has been said to shift the sections of the secretariat itself to send officers and employees to Gairsain. However, it will not be easy to comply with this, because after this arrangement, not only will all the employees and officers have to work in Gairsain, but the movement of files and all the work will also have to be done from Gairsain. Not only this, the selection of the sections to be shifted to Gairsain will also not be easy.

However, with this arrangement, the personnel and officers of the sections going to Gairsain can be given additional allowance or deployment of one post higher as in-charge, so that the employees and officers are motivated to go to Gairsain, not only this, arrangements can also be made through rotation formula. Apart from this, after its launch, similar system can gradually be worked out for other sections also.