State to seek views on making Bill broad-based

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 6

While accepting the draft Bill on hill chakbandi on Tuesday, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said the focus would now shift towards seeking views of the people to make the Bill broad-based before it was introduced in the Uttarakhand legislative Assembly.

“In the coming three months, people’s views on the Bill will be elicited so that no aspect remains untouched. Only through people’s cooperation, we can achieve the goal of chakbandi in the state. The day when the Bill is passed, it will be observed as Krishi Diwas,” said Rawat.

He said the government was looking at ways and means for making agriculture lucrative for this new experiment such as the cluster approach was being promoted in the state.

While Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat said the proposal for implementing the hill chakbandi was first brought up during the tenure of former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna which was later taken up by Harish Rawat who created a separate department for hill chakbandi and also a committee to draft the Bill for the same. “We have allocated Rs 5 crore for the department and around 200 villages have been selected for voluntary chakbandi (a maximum of five villages in one block and minimum of one village in one block). Later, these villages will be developed as adarsh grams,” he said.

The chairman of the committee, KS Rawat, recalled the efforts of his late brother in initiating chakbandi in his village in Pauri and the efforts of Ganesh Singh Garib in keeping alive the hope for the last 40 years. On the other hand, Ganesh Singh Garib gave a clarion call to the people to return to their land and engage in farming.