Should Palampur be a district?

Will Palampur finally become a district? The rumour is hot and making rounds on the social networking sites.  The buzz is that with the Assembly elections round the corner, on August 15 when the nation celebrates Independence Day, our CM will make the grand announcement to this effect. Apart from Municipal Corporation, Palampur’s elevation to the status of a district has been a long standing, actively pursued demand of a section of Palampur’s citizenry. Obviously they will have reasons to feel happy if this happens so.

Well, whether indeed this happens so is, at the moment, a matter of pure conjecture and speculation and we shall have to wait until the D-day just a few days away. But may I please share my thoughts on the subject?

Should Palampur really be made a district? I have my reservations. The politicians will of course look at it from their own narrow perspective: whether the political fall-out will serve their electoral ambitions in the forthcoming elections. I look at it as a common Palampur resident without any political bias.

Firstly, Himachal’s economy is in dire straits. Reeling under huge debt burden it is already surviving on artificial respiration. Will it be prudent to burden the state further by creating more districts?

Secondly, what will be the environmental costs of creating a district? Construction activity will pick up. More trees will come under the axe. More concrete monstrosities will come up. The already depleting green cover will shrink even further. The rapidly eroding ecology of this beautiful town will degrade further. District status to Palampur will trigger further migration from our rural hinterlands to the town thereby adding to the population pressure. Civic amenities will come under greater stress and ultimately become painfully deficient:think of the urban chaos Shimla has become. Traffic will increase, congestion will mount, pollution will add up.  And already warming Palampur will become warmer still. Earlier the residents lived without fans. Then fans became an integral part of our homes. With mounting urbanisation that would inevitably result, the ACs will become necessary. In short, quite a lot of whatever little is left of Palampur’s natural beauty and its Switzerland like charm will suffer a major loss in the wake of making it a district.
Moreover, if Palampur and some other town such as Rampur are made districts as is in the air, this will trigger demand from other towns too staking similar claims leading to anger, heartburn, resentment, frustration, bitterness and unnecessary noise. और हमारे नेता लोगान  को अपनी अपनी राजनैतिक रोटियाँ सेकने का सुनहरी अवसर मिल जाएगा। We have already begun seeing a glimpse of it in the print media.

Dharamsala, the present headquarters of our Kangra district, is just a 30-40 minutes’ drive from Palampur. In these days of better and improving roads and faster vehicles what does this distance matter? And for the people from remote/ distant rural areas who it is argued find it difficult and tedious to travel all the way to Dharamsala for getting their odd jobs done in the district offices, I don’t think Palampur or Dharamsala makes any tangible difference.

Yes, catapulting Palampur to a district will certainly boost business and commerce. People with stakes in these kind of activities will stand to benefit from it. But at inevitable environmental costs which do not become immediately visible but can be huge and with devastating consequences in terms of landslides, hills caving in, tress falling, roads and bridges getting washed away, flash floods becoming more frequent and intense, houses collapsing, cloud bursts, crop loss, death and destruction.

Therefore, for me rather than making Palampur a district, increasing the municipal limits of Palampur and making the present MC a full-fledged Corporation seems a far more sensible and rational proposition. That would I believe ensure better, efficient and well-regulated ‘development’ of Palampur without inflicting much ecological and environmental loss.

But, as I said before, this is but an honest, humble voice of a commoner. In echelons of power with high stake political games, do such voices cut any ice? I think not.

                                              

                                

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   Quotes from 'The forty rules of love'

As I wrote before, this is the book that I am hooked on to these rain-drenched days. I take the liberty to reproduce a few quotes for your reading pleasure:

"In many ways the twenty-first century is not that different from the thirteenth century. Both will be recorded in history as times of unprecedented religious clashes, cultural misunderstangings, and a general sense of insecurity and fear of the Other. At times like these, the need for love is greater than ever. Because love is the very essence and purpose of life. As Rumi reminds us, it hits everybody, including those who shun love- even those who use the word 'romantic' as a sign of disapproval." 

                                               

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"Even a speck of love should not go unappreciated, because as Rumi said, love is the water of life... Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend... May love find you when you least accept it, where you least expect."

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