Last week I travelled through three divisions of Western Uttar Pradesh and Garhwal division of Uttaranchal. The idea was to assess the current socio-economic conditions, especially in light of a deficient monsoon, inflation and accelerated public investment in infrastructure building. I may share some of the key take away as follows:
Crop plentiful
The crop, mainly sugarcane, appeared plentiful. The landscape was mostly lush green. However, many farmers suggested that they lost the investment in early sowing; and have again sown cash crops (vegetable etc.) after the late rains. These crops are also yielding much less as excess late rains have flooded the fields, particularly the smaller fields. Most of them are cautious about the rabi crop as the sowing for advance crop of potato is already delayed by 2-3weeks. However, if the current spell of rains ends in another week as forecasted, the rabi crop could be plentiful. Winter setting in early would also help rabi crops.
Vehicle and jewelry purchases deferred to next year
The impact of tighter availability of credit and prospects of a lower than usual Kharif earning has perhaps prompted deferment of decision to purchase personal vehicles, tractors and jewelry. Eight of the ten people I spoke to were positive that they will be making new purchases next year.
Expressways may not be making life easy
The highway infrastructure is being created at an accelerated pace in UP. It is common to see some old projects getting completed and some new projects being initiated in almost all parts of the states. However, two things remain constant. The quality of new expressways remains questionable. While the instances of damages to the newly constructed expressways in Eastern UP have hogged the media limelight in recent weeks; what has escaped the media scrutiny is the general quality of highways across the state. For example, on the newly built Saharanpur-Dehradun stretch of expressway, the permitted speed is in excess of 100kmph. However, the joints of most spans are so shabbily stitched that even the heavy vehicles get unbalanced at a speed of 80kmph. There was virtually no emergency rescue infrastructure on any of the expressways I travelled.
The NHAI and concessionaires have made absolutely no attempt to create awareness amongst the dwellers living on both sides of the expressways. Few people seem to be conscious of the fact that the speed of life around them has suddenly increased manifold. Most of them could be seen riding two wheelers on expressways without helmets. Wrong side driving to avoid long U turns and exits is blatantly common.
The knowledge to operate a vehicle is often accepted as driving skill. The road awareness and consciousness about the right of way and dangerous driving is almost absent in most village drivers of tractors and motorcycles.
The worst part is that the internal roads of villages and small towns were in absolute pathetic conditions in all the divisions I travelled. Even in the rich town/villages like Sardhana, Budhana, Shamli etc. the internal roads were not travel worthy. Obviously, the expressways are not providing any improvement to the ease of living to the people living alongside these expressways.
Cities expanding to swallow bypass
Numerous bypass roads have been constructed to ease the traffic congestion in major cities. The bypass roads allow the intercity traffic to cross major cities without entering the city, thus saving on precious time and fuel. However, there are instances (for example, Merrut bypass road) where the cities are expanding so fast that the bypass road is becoming part of the expanded city itself, thus defeating the very purpose of constructing the bypass itself.
Mussoorie – an impoverished queen
The visit to the Hill Queen Mussoorie after five years was a shocking experience. The town appeared a pale shadow of its glorious past. The infrastructure appeared to be collapsing. The roads were totally broken. The local vehicle population seems to have increased to an unsustainable level. The cacophony of motorbike horns was unbearable. The locals were always known for their simplicity and honesty. But many young people no longer adhere to the old value system. They do not mind fleecing the tourist for some quick gains; disregarding the reputation of the state as Dev Bhoomi (abode of gods).
There is little effort visible to showcase the local culture. Mussoorie has three Turkish Ice Cream Parlors, many Chinese, Tibetan, Punjabi and South Indian restaurants. But it is hard to find an exclusive local Garhwali cuisine restaurant, which is incidentally extremely tasty, healthy, and organic.
A strange thing was that almost all shops are accepting payment through UPI and wallets, but none was willing to accept credit card payment. The matter needs further exploration.
The composition of tourists has also changed completely. It was mostly budget tourists and some weekend visitors from Dehradun. The hill queen is certainly missing the Delhi and Merrut elites.
I feel the town needs to be completely shut down for outsiders for at last five years to let it rejuvenate and open in a new avatar.
