For the first time as Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami walked into Barnigad — a village tucked deep in the upper Yamuna valley of Uttarkashi district — and within hours laid the groundwork for 38 development projects worth approximately ₹217 crore. The occasion was a Jan Seva Shivir (public service camp) under the Seva Setu Abhiyan, held on 15 October 2026 at Rajkiya Inter College Barnigad (Kunwa) in the Purola assembly constituency.

38 projects, one camp: what got laid and what got launched

Of the 38 development works announced, 30 received foundation stones (shilanyas) and 8 were formally inaugurated (lokarpan). The Chief Minister's Office did not itemise every project, but the package spans road connectivity, basic infrastructure, and civic amenities — the bread-and-butter demands of remote hill constituencies that have historically struggled with thin state presence.

The headline announcement was the inauguration of Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya Barnigad, a new government degree college that extends higher-education access to students in the upper Yamuna valley who would otherwise face long commutes to the nearest college town. Dhami confirmed that land for the college is already secured and committed to beginning construction of a permanent building and campus 'at the earliest.' He also announced the upgrading of Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya Badkot and Chinyalisaur, signalling a broader push on tertiary education across the district.

Three more infrastructure commitments rounded out the day: a mini-stadium at Raja Raghunath Devdokri, a motor road from Barnigad Thala Chowk to Rajkiya Inter College Barnigad, and expedited completion of the previously announced bridge and road from Dada Gaon Chhani to Tatau.

Seva Setu's core promise: government goes to the people

The Seva Setu Abhiyan is the outreach arm of the larger Seva Sankalp Abhiyan. Its logic is deliberately simple: deploy every relevant government department in a single camp so that a villager can resolve land paperwork, collect a welfare cheque, and register a grievance without making repeated trips to a tehsil or district headquarters — journeys that, in Uttarkashi's terrain, can mean hours on winding mountain roads.

At Thursday's camp, Dhami personally inspected departmental stalls, distributed cheques and equipment to beneficiaries of multiple schemes, and quizzed departmental officers on the on-ground progress of welfare programmes. 'The government's purpose is not merely to frame schemes,' he said, 'but to ensure their benefits reach the last person standing at the edge of society.'

Women, youth, and the numbers Dhami cited

Dhami used the Barnigad platform to reel off a series of state and central scheme figures. He said more than 3.10 lakh women in Uttarakhand have become 'Lakhpati Didis' — self-help-group members who now earn above ₹1 lakh annually — through work in tailoring, handloom, handicrafts, and local products. State-specific initiatives including the Mukhyamantri Mahalakshmi Yojana, the Mukhyamantri Ekal Mahila Swarozgar Yojana, and a 30 per cent horizontal reservation for women in government services were highlighted as part of this push.

On youth employment, he said more than 35,000 young people have received government jobs through transparent recruitment processes over the past five years, backed by a strict anti-cheating law designed to end the paper-leak culture that had eroded confidence in public exams.

The CM also noted that more than 59 lakh pilgrims have completed the Char Dham Yatra this season — a figure he tied directly to improving road connectivity and infrastructure as a catalyst for local tourism and employment.

Broader policy frame: UCC, land reclamation, central schemes

Dhami reaffirmed Uttarakhand's position as India's first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code, enacted in 2024, and pointed to the state's strict land law, anti-conversion law, and anti-riot law as pillars of his administration's governance agenda. He added that more than 13,000 acres of land have been freed from illegal encroachment. Central schemes — PM Ujjwala Yojana for clean cooking fuel and Jal Jeevan Mission for piped drinking water — were invoked as evidence of the alignment between state priorities and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's national framework.

Barnigad may be a single village, but Thursday's camp is a template: combine project announcements, direct benefit transfers, and a CM visit to make the state feel present in places it has historically been absent. Whether the promised college building, the mini-stadium, and the motor road materialise on schedule will be the real test of that template.