Rawat shows little interest in pension for statehood activists

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has little sympathy for statehood activists' demand for pension.

At a function of teachers union here on Monday, Rawat said the honour should not come in lieu of the demand of pension. Rawat was replying to a demand of the teachers who wanted the government to recognise the role of teachers in the statehood movement of 1990s.

The demand of the pension by the statehood activists is not new. Since the state was formed in 2000, the statehood activists had been raising the demand, saying it was the best way to honour all those people who had participated in the statehood agitation.

The government is doling out pension of Rs 5,000 per month to nearly 1,500 statehood activists each, who had qualified in the criteria few years ago, says Surendra Kumar, the media in-charge of the chief minister. But others who have not yet received this pension had been raising the demand of getting the recognition of statehood activists, so that they become eligible for the pension.

The chief minister is not in favour of any such demand, owing to the burgeoning state debt and non-Plan expenditure. According to an estimate, the state is already reeling under a debt of about Rs 30,000 crore. The non-Plan expenditure might touch Rs 30,000 crore in the state Budget 2015-16.

Rawat queered the pitch for statehood activists when he said about 100,000 people are roaming in the streets holding news clippings of the statehood movement. According to sources close to Rawat, the chief minister wants the statehood activists to realise that the demand of pension was belittling the entire statehood agitation.