DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand, renowned globally for its spiritual and domestic tourism, is facing an unprecedented challenge with its floating population surging eight-fold annually. Disappointed in the omission of the key issues pertaining to Uttarakhand in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, the state government have decided to approach the Centre via Niti Aayog for help in coping with the massive tourist influx. Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal had earlier requested Sitharaman to address the state’s key issues, including the challenges posed by the floating population, but the budget made no mention of it. “We request the Niti Aayog to provide us with central aid to cater to the millions of people who visit us every year,” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said while interacting with media persons here.Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Dhami said, “Our state’s population is multiplied eight times due to the arrival of people from across the country for Char Dham Yatra, Kanwar Yatra, and other religious pilgrimages, putting a massive strain on our resources.”According to sources, the Uttarakhand government had also requested the Centre to include in the Union Budget, compensation for damages caused by devastating forest fires and high-voltage transmission line losses in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms. However, this was also omitted from the recently announced budget. “The budget barely mentions or rather neglects the severe environmental and climate challenges in its nine key priorities. While there are assurances for Uttarakhand, Himachal, and Sikkim, there is nothing significant for these regions in the budget,” social activist Anoop Nautiyal told TNIE.”Uttarakhand has been overlooked with no allocation for green bonus or floating population. Rudraprayag and Tehri districts, among the 147 most landslide-prone districts in the country, had hoped for some relief. We expected the budget to announce the establishment of glacier or landslide research centers in Uttarakhand, but that hasn’t happened,” he said. “The NDA government’s budget this time has been the most disappointing, especially considering that Uttarakhand is severely affected by forest fires and disasters. Despite this, the Centre has chosen to ignore the state’s needs and failed to make provisions in the central budget for this purpose,” Uttarakhand Congress chief spokesperson Garima Dasoni told TNIE.
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