Uttarakhand Tour, Nov. 2000 | Garhwal Tour, August 2000
The PUCL has done groundbreaking work for Civil Liberties throughout India. For the Uttarakhand Andolan in particular, they were instrumental in getting the word out to the rest of country and world, that police atrocities were being committed on activists. Their thorough investigations into the events of 1994 exposed the cover-up campaign of the Uttar Pradesh Government. Below, their teams have tried to evolve a blueprint for the nascent state, citing as foremost its right to development and the need to safeguard the civil rights of all the new state's citizens.
PUCL Bulletin, Nov., 2000
UP PUCL Study team tours the Uttaranchal region
Attempt to draw contours of development policy in tune with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments
Groundwork for a separate Uttaranchal State PUCL branch
A high-powered team of U P PUCL undertook a tour of Kumaun and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in the last week of September 2000. It may be recalled that a similar team had toured some other areas of the region in the month of June from 13th to 19th. It had covered Dehra Dun, Tehri, Srinagar, Karnaprayag, Gopashewar, Joshimath, and Jairisain. This team comprised the President of UP PUCL Ravi Kiran Jain, Organizing Secretary K K Rai, Treasurer Omkar Dutt, and sociologist from Govind Ballabh Pant, Sociology Institute, Allahabad, Dr. K N Bhatt.
The present team that toured Kumaun comprised besides Ravi Kiran Jain and K N Bhatt, Sociologist D K Giri, Sociologist and Panchayat Raj specialist Dr. Mahipal, Rajindar Dhasmana of Uttarakhand Patrikan Parshid, Delhi and Vice President of UP PUCL Chittaranjan Singh. This team visited Nainital, Betalghatgarh, Almora, Bageshwar, Berinag, Pithoragarh and Haldwani between September 26 and 30.
Everywhere the team held discussions with intellectuals, women, activists, journalists, social and political workers, and the citizens in general. The basic aim of these small and large meetings everywhere was to discuss and exchange views on the future political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the new state. It was also an attempt to find out the opinion of the common citizen about the shape of things to come.
The following points emerged as the representative ideas about the future policies of the new state:
1. There is a unanimous opinion that the demand for a separate state and the consequent agitation was an expression of opposition to centralization and for decentralized development. It is therefore in the spirit of things that politically and economically the new state should adopt egalitarian and decentralized models. If the new state fails to implement the spirit of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in creating the edifice of policies, it will fail the aspirations of the people of the area. Policies that adopt the required direction will not only fulfill local aspirations but will be a beacon of light on the rest of the country. The only way to ensure freedom from backwardness of the area is the idea of 'collective right to development', which is the basic idea of these amendments.
2. Women are the spine of the body-economic of Uttarakhand. Their life structure in this region is hard and difficult like a mountain. It is, therefore, going to be difficult to develop the area unless their life is totally transformed. It is, therefore, necessary that in the politics of the region, from the village to the state 50% participation by women has to be assured.
3. The development priorities have to ensure that first every village has to be provided drinking water, health facilities educational opportunities, and electricity. Without these basic necessities, development will remain a dream. Forest here were traditionally regarded as the wealth of local society and were managed by them. These have to be returned to the village Panchayat. The PUCL team found unanimity on the opinion that forest are going to be the centre of development activities in Uttarakhand. Joint forest management schemes are a conspiracy to eliminate whatever remain of the traditional rights of the people on forest polices. Therefore, they should be withdrawn forthwith and forest areas should be included in the responsibilities of Panchayats. The most developed and preserved forests in the area even today are those that are under the jurisdiction of Panchayats.
4. Those who run the political structure and institutions of the state will have to keep in mind the peculiarities of the region and base the development potential in tune with them. Hydro electric generation, electronic and information technology, industries connected with pharmaceutical and medicinal plants, forest fruit farming, village industries connected with local crafts, tourism and pilgrimage, film industry, educational and research institutions in all these fields are some examples of developmental efforts that can strengthen the demand of self sufficiency of the region. Healthy competition in market economy depending on industries that use local products will be the precondition of development.
5. There seemed unanimity on the point that decentralized and accountable governance by people's institutions represented an alternative to the politics of indirect representation. The people of Uttarakhand therefore, seemed to believe firmly that the new state should evolve from the Constitution a scheme of self-governance in which 60 percent of the state budget should be taken out of the control of bureaucracy and transferred to local self-governing bodies.
6. Everywhere people were found to be looking forward to begin a new politics for local development which will be able to fulfill the aspirations of the people and guarantee a model decentralized structure. Egalitarian decentralization and development have to be the nucleus of the politics of the state. The region needs a political leadership which understands these nuances and are prepared to work for their healthy developments. The traditional mainstream political parties on the other hand are for centralization and have always failed to work for the fulfillment of regional aspirations. If an appropriate political group does not come up at this juncture, the state will slip into the traditional rut. The activists and the leaders who organized the agitation for the state can come together and form such a group. This is the only way to save the new state from entrenched vested interests in the country. An alternative development model at its core can be propagated as the only political platform that is committed to these ideas. All such social, economic, political, and cultural activist groups should get together.
A question was raised on the use of the terms 'Uttarakhand' and 'Uttaranchal". It was clarified that the people of the region had all along fought for 'Uttarakhand'. The name was changed by the Central government in utter disregard of the sentiments of the people. However, this was not an issue at present.
The PUCL, an organisation known as PAHAR, and Social Science Institute, Delhi propose to jointly organize in the second week of December a two-day workshop in Roorkee University to further discuss these ideas and the ways to concretize them. Representatives from Uttarakhand, leading sociologists of the country, intellectuals, lawyers and human rights workers will be invited to this meet. It will be an attempt to evolve constructive policy indicators for the new State in the light of the observations of the PUCL team.
PUCL UP Team Tours Garhwal Region of Uttarakhand
The State level team of PUCL (UP branch) made an extensive tour 'Jan Jagran Yatra' of Garhwal region of Uttarakhand from 12th June to 21 June. The team was headed by its State President, Shri Ravi Kiran Jain and it comprised Om Dutt Singh, General Secretary PUCL, Dr. KN Bhatt, social scientist, GB Pant Social Institute, Allahabad and K.K. Roy Organising Secretary, PUCL UP.
The purpose of the visit was to spread the message and awareness amongst the people that the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all people are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political developmental achievements.
The PUCL team held well-attended meetings at Tehri, Srinagar, Karn Prayag, Gopeshwar, Joshimath and Gainsain. The people attending the meetings were advocates, journalists, shopkeepers, teachers, women, peasants, government employees, unemployed youth, and students. The people raised the issue that the human rights of the people of Uttarakhand can not be achieved unless people have control over their water, land and forest resources, health, education and rural development programmes. There was extreme anger against Tehri dam, Vishnu Prayag Power Project and other big centralized production units.
The PUCL team was immensely assisted by Sri Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Kamla Pant, Usha Bhatt, S.P. Sati, Purshottam Asnora, SS Bhandari, and Vijay Laxmi Gusai. -- K.K. Roy
Excerpts from the Approach Paper drafted by Shri Ravi Kiran Jain, President, UP-PUCL for the above tour:
Human Right to Development:
Human Rights can be classified in the following three categories: A. Civil and Political Rights; B. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; C. Collective Rights of Self-Determination and Right to Development.
The first categories of these rights are contained in part III of the Constitution of India under the heading of 'Fundamental Rights' which are enforceable through courts. The second category of rights are contained in Part IV under the heading of 'Directive Principles of State Policy' which "shall not be enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid down are never-the-less fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws". The third category of these Human Rights are contained in Part IX and IX A of the Constitution.
The Constitution of India enacted by "WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA" who have solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, Socialist, Secular Democratic Republic" secured to ourselves; JUSTICE, social, economic and political. The Sovereignty lies in "we the people of India", who were to be the masters of our own destiny. The constitution promised to re-build a new social, economic, and political order in which people could enjoy real JUSTICE, social, economic, and political. The promise was contained in Preamble and Part IV that was to be redeemed by legislatures we would elect. But there has been a breach of faith by those who were elected by us to redeem this promise. Politicians have held no other nation to ransom as relentlessly as India has been by its politicians through concentrating power in their hands.
The politicians of this country are selling out this country's natural resources to the Multinationals. Along with a nexus of political leadership of this country, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation are killing livelihoods, environment, and democracy in India. These forces have their evil eyes even on the creation of the Uttarakhand/Uttaranchal. The Himalayas, which are one of the world's major eco belts, are already in irreversible danger of damage and this majestic mountain chain can become barren very fast unless something is done by the people of Uttarakhand immediately after its creation.
The first task of people of Uttarakhand after its creation should be to exercise their collective Human Right to Development contained in Part IX and IX A of the Constitution, under which, by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, institutions of local self governments have been created in rural and urban areas. These institutions are meant for decentralized planning.
What should be the model of development? The people themselves at local level can now answer this question. The right to development encompasses within its ambit all human rights and fundamental freedoms including the right of self-determination. The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and every people are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. Thus, the right to development is of multi-dimensional character incorporating all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights necessary for the full development of the individual and the protection of this dignity. The principal goal of development policy is to create sustainable improvement in the quality of life for all people. The sustainable development is the key to a social order based on equality, prosperity, and security. It is a process in which development can be sustained for many generations to come. The phenomenon provides for improving the quality of both the human life and nature surroundings. It thus aims at harmonizing and maintaining the carrying capacity of the life-supporting ecosystem. 'Sustainable Development' is a development that meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.
The UP PUCL has been active in protecting and defending the 'Civil and Political Rights' of the people of Uttarakhand since 1994. Now the UP PUCL seeks to make an humble suggestion to start a campaign to create awareness in the people of Uttarakhand about their economic, social and cultural rights and the Right to Development through the Institutions created by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts. We have prepared in a note in Hindi to put forward our point of view in this regard, which is being circulated among various sections of the people of Uttarakhand.
In this paper we are reproducing the relevant parts of the Constitution. These are recommended to be read by each and every citizen in Uttarakhand, and then to foster a debate in around the people's participation in the development of the proposed State. Democracy implies people's participation not only in decision making around the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice, but also in the execution of such plans.
