The deluge and the discontents

The Kedarnath floods will have a telling effect on the polls in Uttarakhand

February 03, 2017 02:15 am | Updated 02:16 am IST - Ukhimath (Uttarakhand):

  long wait:  Though the government promised a job to Neeta Devi, whose husband died in the 2013 deluge, it never came. She works as a helper in an anganwadi.

long wait: Though the government promised a job to Neeta Devi, whose husband died in the 2013 deluge, it never came. She works as a helper in an anganwadi.

In a village 60 kilometres from Kedarnath, a former businessman, Prakash Lal, shows a letter dated November 25, 2013 marked to a government official about compensation for the losses he suffered in the Kedarnath deluge. Over three years after the letter was typed, the issue of pending compensations remains unresolved.

Mr. Lal is a Dalit belonging to Sirvani village in the Kedarnath constituency. He becomes teary-eyed when he is asked about his two sons who died in the disaster. “I won’t be able to speak about my children’s death,” he said. However, he did mention that the compensation he received for the hotels and shops he lost to the Mandakini flash floods was negligible.

Mr. Lal is joined by Pradeep Kumar, a Dalit from Pithora village near Siruvani. He too got no compensation, he says.

“I owned a medical store in Rambara [in Kedarnath Valley] and had taken a bank loan to set it up,” he says. The medical store, he says, was his only source of income.

 

Support for Congress

After the deluge, the Kedarnath Anusoochit Jaati Deviya Aapda Sangharsh Samiti was formed. It has among its members Dalits who either received partial compensation or no compensation at all. The Samiti is supporting Congress candidate Manoj Rawat, a new face in the party.

“Had anyone else in the Congress contested the seat, we would have boycotted the polls,” says Mr. Kumar, who is himself a member of the Samiti. “But we have faith in him [Manoj Rawat] and if he wins, he will bring us justice.”

Kedarnath, which falls under the Ukhimath tehsil, has 247 villages and a population of 65,000. The villagers’ income is dependent on the Kedarnath yatra.

As the deluge unfolded, 584 people from the Ukhimath villages died and 296 women were widowed.

Of the 82,571 voters in the Kedarnath constituency, 19% are Dalits. Brahmins make up about 23% and the remaining are Rajputs.

Tough fight

Former Congress MLA Shaila Rani Rawat is the BJP candidate here and former BJP MLA Asha Nautiyal is contesting as an Independent after she was denied BJP ticket. Pitted against them are Mr. Manoj Rawat and an Independent, Kuldeep Rawat, who has worked in the deluge-hit area for the past three years. Kedarnath is poised to witness a tough battle.

Ms. Nautiyal won the seat in the 2002 and 2007 Assembly polls as a BJP candidate. “Asha Nautiyal is respected in the region and it is being speculated that a lot of BJP voters will vote for her instead of for Shaila Rani,” said Atul Jamloki from Phata in Ukhimath.

Ms. Shaila Rani won the seat in the 2012 polls as a Congress candidate. She was among the nine Congress MLAs who rebelled against the Harish Rawat-led Congress government last year and initiated a political upheaval that eventually brought the State under President’s Rule.

People who believe they received a fair compensation for their losses are expected to vote for Ms. Rani.

“If we don’t vote for her, then who will we go to with our problems? She got us compensation,” said Madhav Singh from Badasu village, which lost 23 persons in the deluge.

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