Monday, 17 January 2022 | RP NAILWAL
The Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) was sought to be created way back in 1976 by the then Uttar Pradesh government with the basic capital of Rs 40 crore with a view to not only promoting developmental activities in poverty- stricken and much exploited sub-Himalayan Garhwal region but also to provide gainful employment opportunities to the youth migrating from here. Wisdom prevailed on some politicians in Lucknow to improve the lot of people in the neglected region. The tasks to be handled by the newly- created corporation were basically aimed at promoting tourism and training able- bodied youth for developmental activities. These included bee-keeping, fishery, citrus fruit production, furniture -making and so forth.
However, due to excessive bureaucratic and political interference and corruption in the day today functioning of the organisation over the years, GMVN eventually became a kind of gold mine for bureaucrats and politicians. The organisation which was supposed to become a fulcrum of development could not bring about any change in the lives of the distraught people. “It was well known how a team of bureaucrats and officers, with little idea about necessary developmental plans needed for the hill development, were running the organisation at their whims and fancy,”observes a retired bureaucrat not wanting to be identified.
There was hardly any monitoring of the budget expenditure or the ground activities. No one was able to decipher as to how the targeted objects were being achieved. Indeed, none seemed to be bothered about how the money was being spent on the supposed developmental programmes for the poor hill folk. The observers often talked about the purchases and utilisation of funds received from Lucknow. Infact, it is said that bureaucrats enjoyed their tenure in the organisation to the hilt.
Due to this recklessness, some factories set up by the GMVN in different parts of Garhwal eventually had to be closed down. It was all attributed to alleged mismanagement and corruption. Among the units closed at that time were the Leesa (resin) factory at Tilwara, flash door factory at Kotdwar, mineral water factory in Uttarkashi, furniture factory at Rishikesh and some others. No inquiry was ever done to find out the causes behind their closure. A big amount was spent in setting up those factories with the aim to provide employment to the local youth.
After the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000, the state government in its own wisdom, handed over management of quarrying and FL2 (liquor sale) to GMVN which later triggered a debate. Many raised doubts about its overall commercial activities which did not benefit the jobless youth. The question making rounds at that time was that revenue generated by these two major activities could have alone sufficed to strengthen the economic condition of the decades old organisation. This revenue would have filled the coffers of the GMVN.
After the formation of the state, people were hoping that the working of GMVN would be streamlined and this organisation would become one of the key fulcrums of the developmental activities in Garhwal. Unfortunately, even after twenty one years of the formation of the state, the condition of GMVN has gone from bad to worse. It has not moved much towards achieving what it was supposed to initially. Nothing worth mentioning is being done by the organisation in terms of setting up cottage industries or promoting tourism in a big way. The current activities of the GMVN set up don’t inspire any hope.
Today, with a force of nearly 1,200 staff and 90 guest houses, revenue generation is comparatively said to be pretty low. Even today the basic focus seems to be on purchases and reconstruction. The inventory control needs improvement while big and small vehicles of the organisation lie scattered here and there with few to bother about them. The key staff of the GMVN is deployed in serving dignitaries and secretariat staff. The devoted lowly paid lower – level staff members of the organisation have their own problems. Most of these people are sons of the soil and continue to suffer in silence.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning here that considerable daily refreshment bills of the dignitaries often tend to raise the eyebrows of curious members of the public. The entire expenditure on the eatables and tea cups is borne by GMVN.
Compare it with the salaries and condition of the poorly paid staff. Often, the poor lowly- paid members of the hard working staff don’t even get paid on time. It is high time a thorough inquiry into the activities of the GMVN is done in order to set the records straight.
(The author is a veteran journalist based in Dehradun. Views expressed are personal)
