The Pioneer 03.11.2010
Festival despite current problemsGP Semwal | Pauri
Natural calamities in the mountainous Districts of Uttarakhand State during the recently ended rainy season has caused substantial damage to private and public property, lives of humans, animals and the condition of essential facilities like motor roads and water supply schemes.
Considering the gravity of the situation, the Uttarakhand Government has issued instructions that the 10th Anniversary of the State Foundation Day will be celebrated in a very simple way with no cultural programmes slated to be staged on this occasion. However, the Pauri Municipal board chairman has announced the plan for celebrating Autumn Festival in Pauri, which is eliciting the opposition of public representatives and local residents.
Even though the natural calamities caused much damage and suffering to residents of Pauri District and other regions of Uttarakhand, the Pauri Municipal Board chairman and nine members took a hasty decision to organise the Autumn Festival in Pauri, in spite of the BJP members strongly opposing this decision.
Majority of the people living in Pauri have started questioning the decision of the municipal board to organise the Pauri Autumn Festival without consulting the public in an open meet as done in the past years. The people are criticising this decision because the board didn’t consult the public for organising a festival which is said to be of and by the people.
In the past years, the Pauri Autumn festival was organised jointly by the District administration, Tourism department and Municipal Board. Meetings were held and attended by the public for finalising the dates of the festival with public consent. During the tenure of Jaspal Singh Negi, former president of Municipal Board, different committees comprising of local citizens were formed for ensuring the proper organisation of various events but now the Municipal board has started to appoint its own members as conveners of these committees. This has annoyed the people of Pauri who are more qualified to organise the events than board members.
Social worker Aruna Thapliyal said that the roads and drainage system in Pauri town have been in severely bad condition since the past two years even as land encroachment continues to cause major civic problems in town.
However, the municipal board has remained apathetic to these burning issues and has remained indifferent towards the repair and development works due to which the construction of the new bus station has been delayed by about five years in spite of the required funds being sanctioned in time. In stead of working towards redressal of such major problems, the Municipal Board has decided to organise the autumn festival in haste which is a wasteful manner of spending funds of the board meant to be used for public welfare.
Cultural artist Gauri Shankar Thapliyal said that to make any festival successful, responsibility should be given to those persons of the town who are aware and qualified to conduct such events.
District Congress President Govind Singh Rawat said that though he personally believes that such festivals should not be held in present times, the decision has been taken by the Municipal Board since similar festivals are being organised in other parts of Uttarakhand.
