Dear netas, Himachal has been one of the best states. Keep it like that

Dear Politicos, 

I am a proud voter of Himachal Pradesh, one of the most progressive states of the Indian union. The state is still considered to be one of the most well-administered ones and that concurs with my personal experience. 

One of the factors I attribute this to is the strong foundations laid by the first chief minister, Yashwant Singh Parmar. But the story of Himachal has been changing gradually over almost two decades; and it is you, along with some bureaucrats, that have started failing the state. 

I have spent a reasonable time in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand where people look upon Himachal as their role model. But the way things are going, Himachal is fast moving towards being another Uttarakhand. 

I have many fond personal memories of the past, which I have shared with people from different states where I have worked over the last two decades. 

I still remember how our poor domestic help was overjoyed to receive a hand-written letter from the then chief minister Shanta Kumar after she had got someone to pen a letter to him on the water crisis in her village in Solan district. Not only did Shanta Kumar promise to solve the problem but he ensured that a hand pump was installed in her village. 

My frequent visits to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital for my mother's cancer treatment were an eye-opening experience: the polite hospital staff went around encouraging patients to take treatment, guiding them on availing free travel in state-run buses and attending to the needs of those coming from far off places on priority. 

On two occasions when my mother had to undergo bone scanning with the help of a perishable medicine coming from Israel, for which dates had to be taken in advance, I was surprised to get calls from the hospital confirming that the medicine had arrived and requesting the patients to come for the scan. 

There was also the case of the government officers making payments of salary arrears and other dues worth lakhs to people known to me following a court case without seeking even a penny as graft. 

I have witnessed an improvement in roads and transport system. The students passing out from state-run educational institutions have done very well, often outshining their peers from the private ones. There have been initiatives in the social sector, particularly for the senior citizens which other states need to follow.

These are all examples of good governance that we have seen under regimes of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

But at present the voters feel let down by you. For them, the politicians are fast taking to the ways of their counterparts in other states and are getting defined by greed and irresponsibility. 

Look at the way you have been trying to accommodate those who have encroached upon public lands and have been flouting norms when it comes to rampant illegal construction across the state. Why is it that the office of the Governor or the High Court have to step in to stay your plans on the retention policies with regards to the illegal construction? It is well known that such policies are going to largely benefit the land sharks and builders instead of poor common people. 

I mentioned the example of installation of a hand pump on the plea of a poor widow only to point out now that those building resorts, hotels and other structures in the villages of the state are openly flouting rules to extract underground water while carrying out illegal construction. Even reprimands from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have failed to awaken you. 

You have failed the farmers of the state by not being able to address the menace of monkeys. Even after the Centre allowed you to declare them vermin, you failed to act for whatever reasons. You have failed to help the food-processing industry take off in this state. Imagine a place like Solan known nationally for its tomato produce not having a tomato processing unit. 

In your overdrive to encourage private institutes of higher education to set shop in the state, you have clearly failed to evaluate what they have to offer both to the students as well as the industry. Representatives of the industry are often claiming that the lot being churned out by many of these institutions is unemployable. The poor parents on the other hand have been selling land and taking loans to get their wards admitted to these institutions in the hope of securing a better future for them. 

At the same time there is a desperate need to upgrade the infrastructure of the government educational institutions. The videos of the scenario at the Himachal Pradesh University hostels that went viral after the Governor's visit there recently should come as an eye opener for you. 

Similarly, you must improve the health infrastructure in the districts so that the poor people do not have to flee to the private hospitals within Himachal and to adjoining places like Chandigarh to be fleeced with impunity. 

The law-and-order scenario has also been going downhill. Mere criticisms do not work. There was a time when a rare murder would become the talk of the town for day together. Now, the dailies are reporting heinous rimes regularly. The ones that are likely to have political implications like the recent 'Gudiya' rape and murder case of Kotkhai or the alleged murder of a forest guard by the timber mafia in Mandi get blown while the others are forgotten. 

At the same time I want to point out that you need to be more transparent on your industrial growth. True that the industry has come to the foothills of Himachal riding the tax holiday of the Centre but norms on 70% employment to the locals continue to be flouted. The outsourcing of recruitment through contractors is playing havoc with the job security of the workers. 

Last but not the least, I need to point out that Himachal has been a peaceful state. There has been communal brotherhood and caste disparities and issues have never been given prominence. But of late, there have been attempts to instigate hatred towards the minorities and the marginalised. Such things cannot happen unless there is political patronage. I hope you will not allow the breeding of hate culture in this state. 

Himachal in itself has a lot of potential and you can help it realise its goals. We neither need a 'Modi Model' nor a 'Gujarat Model'. The state has enough potential to put forward a 'Himachal Model' for the rest of the country to emulate. 

I hope good political sense prevails as you get ready for another poll battle. The people want a result-oriented government where criticism by the Opposition is constructive, not what we have come to witness over the last few years. And lastly it brings us a lot of shame when we see your names emerging in scams. 

Yours faithfully,

A common voter