Bijnor: Neglected for years, residents of 185 Bijnor villages bordering Uttarakhand have now pinned their hopes on CM Yogi Adityanath, who sent his emissary — BJP MLA from Noorpur Lokendra Chauhan — to lend an ear to their problems.

According to villagers, successive governments have failed to pay attention to their plight ever since the hill state of Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. They want to merge with the hill state as the border villages of Uttarakhand have better facilities. For years, Seemavarti Sangharsh Samiti, has been spearheading the movement to join Uttarakhand.

Now, with BJP in power in both UP and Uttarakhand, villagers hope their demand to be included in the hill state will be met. A few weeks ago, a delegation of villagers met with Yogi to draw his attention to their problems. It was then that CM Yogi entrusted Noorpur MLA Lokendra Chauhan to visit the villages and ascertain their problems.

On Monday, Chauhan visited several villages, including Motadhak, Chatruwala and Kaudiya. On being asked about his visit, the MLA said, “CM Yogi wants to resolve all problems of the villagers living on UP-Uttrakhand border. I have been assigned the task of learning about their problems.”

He said, “I have found people had problems regarding drinking water supply, electricity, roads, etc. Besides this, villagers told me that they have their bank accounts in Kotdwar while they live in UP. That is why they have to face lot of problems to get subsidy under different government schemes. There is some dispute over land between forest department and villagers. I have noted down their problems and will apprise the CM. The problems will be sorted out.”

Distance from district headquarters, Bijnor city, is cited as one of the reasons why these villages have seen little development in terms of basic infrastructure, schools, electricity and roads. These villages are about 60-70 km from Bijnor city whereas Kotdwar in Uttarakhand is just 4 km away.

As Manmohan Dudhpuri, a resident of Talla Dhak village, put it, “Some parts of our village are in Uttarakhand and some in UP. Many of our houses are shown in government records to be in Uttarakhand while agriculture land is shown to be in UP.

“We have no power now. We were getting it from Uttarakhand but now, the hill state wants to disconnect supply. It has issued notices several times in this regards. When have spoken to Bijnor’s power authorities but they cannot lay the power lines through forest area.

“In addition to this, there is no industry and educational institute, hospitals worth the name here.” added Dudhpuri.