PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
Members of the Sthayi Rajdhani Gairsain Samiti staged a protest outside the Assembly in Dehradun on Thursday, demanding that Gairsain be declared the permanent capital of Uttarakhand. As part of the protest, several members, including former IAS officer and committee chief convenor Vinod Prasad Raturi, shaved their heads to vent their anger against the State government.
The committee also announced a Maha-Padyatra from Dehradun to Gairsain, which will begin on August 15 from outside the Assembly premises.
The protesters said that the government had ignored public sentiment and failed to address the concerns of people in the hill areas. A member of the committee Parth Raturi said that the organisation had earlier held protests in Delhi, Dehradun, Karnaprayag, Chaukhutia and Rudraprayag. He also claimed that members had observed a relay hunger strike at the Dehradun protest site for more than 100 days on the same issue.
Raturi said that political leaders and officials had remained insensitive to the problems faced by people in the hills. He warned of intensification of the movement if their demand for Gairsain as the permanent capital was not accepted.
