Pauri/Dehradun: Dusty lanes, potholed roads, a run-down school building and locked-up houses — there is nothing that distinguishes Khairasain from any other village in Pauri Garhwal district except that this is the native village of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Rawat, who was elected the chief minister of the state after the BJP’s resounding victory in 2017, completed two years in office on Monday. In the past two years, Khairasain as well as some nearby villages have seen many development works, including foundation stones being laid for the establishment of polytechnic colleges and skill development centres in an effort to curb migration.

But residents of Khairasain say that migration has continued unabated.

“Migration hasn’t dipped even after the BJP government took over in the state. More than 30 families have moved out from the village in search for better opportunities,” Sobhan Singh Rawat, a resident of Khairasain, said,

He added, “The house next to the chief minister’s ancestral home is also locked. The family has now moved to Dehradun.”

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s elder brother Brijmohan Rawat who stays in the village, said only about a quarter of families are left in the five nearby villages.

Even though migration woes persist, the residents of Khairasain are all praise for the chief minister for initiating projects in the village, but added that few promises are yet to be fulfilled.

Sobhan Singh Rawat, a villager, told TOI that the construction of a 3-km road that connects the village to Satpuli Road has finally began. “The proposal for this had been passed by the previous government, but they did nothing. It was only after Trivendra Rawat was elected that the construction began,” he said.

Two artificial lakes are also being built in the area at a cost of Rs 80 crore in order to attract tourists.

