Gairsain to have Assembly building first, Raipur later

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 17

With the construction of the second Vidhan Sabha at Gairsain (Chamoli) in full swing, the issue of shifting of the Vidhan Sabha from Defence Colony to a new site at Raipur in Dehradun has taken a backseat.

It was former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna who had announced the shifting of the Vidhan Sabha to Raipur along with the state secretariat. However, at the same time Bahuguna also announced the construction of the Vidhan Sabha Bhavan at Gairsain.

For constructing the Vidhan Sabha in Raipur, the government has failed to acquire adequate land due to the lack of permission from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Further, a few Congress leaders led by Speaker of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Govind Singh Kunjwal were not in the favour of shifting the Vidhan Sabha Assembly from Defence Colony to Raipur.

“We are not getting adequate land for building MLA hostels and other infrastructure. The Ministry of Environment is not in favour of granting permission for cutting down a large number of trees. The entire process of acquiring land according to the norms laid down by the Ministry of Environment is tedious. In case several trees are cut down, we will have to engage in compensatory afforestation and also give back land for land acquired by us, which again will bear down the government as it is quite costly,” said Kunjwal.

Further, along with Kunjwal, Deputy Speaker AP Maikhuri does not want the government to shift focus away from Gairsain, where the construction of the second Vidhan Sabha hall, residential complexes for MLAs and Vidhan Sabha Secretariat are in full swing.

“Though it is premature and early to gauge from the response people had given to the government’s decision to hold the Assembly session in Gairsain last year, the government’s commitment to follow it up again this year by holding the session at the polytechnic will go down well with the masses. We have to continue with our efforts so that during the Assembly elections in 2017, our party get’s a political mileage,” said Maikhuri.

Significantly, during the 13th Finance Commission, the Central government had allocated Rs 88 crore for the construction of the Vidhan Sabha Bhavan. A portion of that money has been earmarked for Gairsain and another portion was earmarked for Raipur.