Dehradun: Empty and abandoned village houses up in the hills and the growing urban chaos in towns and cities down in the plains of Uttarakhand haunt and pain its citizens. But these are issues that local politicians and the parties still abhor to address. Reason: They don’t have any solution to address these mega issues as of now.
These issues are raising a big question mark in the minds of citizens’ civil society groups here: Is the voice of democracy weakening in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand!
Perhaps yes, if one goes by the low polling percentage and the high migration rate in Hill areas in this state, where nearly “five lakh people have migrated from hill villages to towns in search of job and work for the last 10 years”.
Rubbing salt to the wound this time is the surging cases of corona pandemic in Uttarakhand. It appears the high positivity rate in many districts may further mar the polling outcome if the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not address these issues by using technology to bring out the voters at their polling stations to exercise their franchise.
The civil society groups are broadcasting “migration and low polling percentage issue” among the political parties as one of major poll issues in Uttarakhand, which is going to poll on February 14.
It, however, remains yet to be seen whether or not the ruling BJP and opposition parties- Congress and new entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)- would address these issues in their election manifestos. Or will the party candidates reach out to the maximum voters and bring them out at polling stations to cast votes?
As of now, all the parties have launched their virtual campaigns on social media to reach out to the voters as ECI has banned rallies and road shows and big meetings till January 22.
The parties, their key leaders and candidates whose names have been declared, are active now on the ground and on virtual platforms. They are putting across the voters their “claims and counter claims” and “charges and counter charges of corruption” to pin one another in this game of one-upmanship ahead of polling on February 14.
The experts fear that that polling percentage could be even more less this time not only due to the migration factor, but also due to a ban on rallies and public meetings in view of the surge in corona cases in Uttarakhand.
Civil society groups have come out with fact sheets on the previous low voting percentage in hills of Uttarakhand. This time the high positive rates of coronavirus may further impact the voting outcomes on February 14, they said.
As many as 11 out of 13 districts in Uttarakhand had the positivity rate of 5% one week ago only two districts had over 5%. But the scene has changed with the positivity rate climbing as high as 13.50% and active cases are 20,000 as on January 18, which may go up further in view of the upward increase in the cases in the state, fear the citizens.
Apart from the surge in positivity rates, Dehradun based SDC Foundation has also come out a report that attribute heavy migration in the state as one of the likely key reasons behind the low turnout.
The report is titled as “Migration and Uttarakhand Election 2017”, which is based on the voting patterns and percentages in the earlier 2017 assembly elections in the state. The report is prepared by the foundation researchers- Praveen Upreti, Pyare Lal and Vidush Pandey of SDC Foundation.
The foundation says that the number of voters in the assembly seats in the hilly areas is less than in the plain areas, as well as fewer people go to vote in these areas than in the plain areas. In this way, about 40 to 50 percent of the mountain voters are not able to participate in the democratic process.
SDC Foundation President Anoop Nautiyal said in the 2017 assembly elections, the average turnout in Uttarakhand was 65.6%. “Except Uttarkashi district, the voting in all other hill districts was far less than the average turnout of the state. The lowest polling percentage was in the hill districts of Tehri, Pauri and Almora, he said.
In the plains district of Haridwar; the assembly constituencies of Laksar, Haridwar Rural and Piran Kaliyar had the highest voting in the state. The turnout in the three constituencies was between 81 and 82 per cent, foundation researchers found.
In contrast, Lansdowne and Chaubattakhal in Pauri district and Salt in Almora district recorded the lowest voter turnout of 46 to 48 per cent respectively.
The polling percentage in Ghansali in Tehri district was also less than 50 per cent. Just 49.19 percent votes were cast here. Of the 34 constituencies in nine hill districts, the vote percentage of 28 was below the state average of 65.6%.
Anoop Nautiyal said only Uttarkashi district had recorded better polling percentage with 69.38% in hill districts. In such a situation, there is a need for governments, policy makers and public representatives to deeply understand the reasons that the voting percentage is so high in Uttarkashi in comparison to other hill districts.
Foundation has urged the ECI to adopt Uttarkashi model in Uttarakhand state for finding reasons for higher polling percentage here.
Election Commission should make efforts to increase the voting percentage in other hilly areas like Uttarkashi district. In view of the Covid restrictions, efforts can be made with the help of technology using social media to sensitize the voters, Nautiyal said.
Apart from this, the report states that in all the five constituencies of the capital Dehradun city- Raipur, Mussoorie, Rajpur Road, Dharampur and Dehradun Cantt- the turnout was very low with less than 60 per cent votes.
But the big question remains: Will or will not the BJP, Congress and AAP address this issue of migration and low polling percentage in the higher hill districts and address it in their election manifestoes, only the coming days will tell this.
(Kuldeep Chauhan is Editor, HimbuMail)
