Uttarakhand Foundation Day: 24 yrs on, assets, liabilities issues with U.P. remain unsolved
Chief ministers of both states met on several occasions in past 24 years to resolve the pending issues
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have come a long way in the past 24 years after the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000. Both the states, however, have yet to go a long way to resolve the issues concerning the division of assets and liabilities between them.
Chief ministers of both the states met on several occasions in the past 24 years to resolve the pending issues. U.P.’s Yogi Adityanath and Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami have also shown bonhomie resolving most of the contentious issues one after the other over the years.
Uttarakhand has now listed seven issues that need to be discussed and the chief secretaries of both the states may meet by the end of this year to resolve them.
Besides proposing to resolve the issue of Uttarakhand’s share in the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) (Supreme Court case number 05/2012) through discussions with Uttar Pradesh, the hill state has also requested U.P. to hand over vacant land/buildings of irrigation department to Uttarakhand.
Other issues relate to division of assets between Uttar Pradesh Beej Vikas Nigam and Uttarakhand Beej evam Terai Vikas Nigam, payment of interest on assets of the Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation. The Uttarakhand Forest Corporation has claimed its share in interest on these assets and demanded a sum of ₹464.73 crore from Uttar Pradesh.
The Uttar Pradesh government, however, appears to have its own concerns on these issues. Those aware of the developments say that the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, have not been used to the optimum in the past 24 years to resolve the issue and thus may not be very effective now.
Uttar Pradesh has, meanwhile, invested a large sum in the THDC. Instead of working out a consensus through discussions, the hill state should accept the prevailing situation as the case is pending in the Apex court.
A senior officer said Uttarakhand decided to move the Apex court on the issue instead of resolving the dispute mutually and now wants to hold fresh discussions suggesting that both U.P. and Uttarakhand may equally divide the U.P.’s share in the THDC.
About Uttarakhand’s demand for transfer of irrigation department’s land, the state government has contended that Uttar Pradesh has agreed to allow Uttarakhand to use its 697.576-acre land for holding Kumbh Mela at Haridwar and other such activities.
The U.P. government is apprehensive about possible encroachment of land if the same was transferred to Uttarakhand. The U.P. government is of the opinion that Uttarakhand should ensure that the U.P. irrigation department’s land in Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Champavat is not encroached upon.
It has been felt that the Uttar Pradesh government has time and again requested Uttarakhand to lodge an FIR against those who encroach the land as not registering an FIR may boost the morale of the land encroachers and action is now being taken to register cases in this regard.
About the payment of interest on dues, another officer pointed out that both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had earlier agreed to not raise issues concerning payment of interest and the hill state therefore should not demand interest on assets of the Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation.
The officer pointed out that a decision to pay ₹177.03 crore to the Uttarakhand Forest Corporation was taken at a meeting of chief ministers of the two states on 18 January 2021 and the payment has already been made.
Other issues that have been raised by Uttarakhand include hill state’s share of ₹10 crore in the construction of Vishnuprayag Hydro Electric Plant and division of assets of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Pradeshik Cooperative Union.
Uttarakhand has to pay a sum of ₹41.03 lakh to Uttar Pradesh. It also has to transfer land at Ranikhet and that of Cooperative Management Institute, Dehradun. Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank and Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank are too to make payments of smaller sums to each other.
When contacted, additional chief secretary, Uttarakhand coordination department, Jitendra Kumar said Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have resolved most of the important issues in the past 24 years.
He said the Uttarakhand government has listed some more issues recently and the chief secretaries of both the states may meet by the end of 2024 to resolve them.