Since assuming charge as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on February 1 this year, Harish Rawat has set an example in Governance by working overtime to ensure timely rehabilitation of those affected in the June 2013 disaster and the restoration of road connectivity and infrastructure before the start of the Yatra season.

He starts his day by meeting visitors at his official residence (Bijapur guest house) and generally ends his day chairing a meeting with officials in the presence of chief secretary and other senior officials before once again meeting the remaining visitors at the end of the day.Though the opposition alleges that decisions of the State Government are politically influenced, the CM states that his main focus is on the disaster affected and not the elections. Rawat has been burning the midnight oil in his efforts to restore normalcy in the State and it was at the end of one of his late night meetings at the Secretariat, from 1 am to 2.05 am, that he talked about his priorities, challenges and vision for the State in an exclusive interview to Sunil Kumar and Paritosh Kimothi.

The State is going to face panchayat and general elections soon, don’t you think you would get limited time to serve before enforcement of model code of conductIJ

I took oath as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on February 1, 2014 and immediately after me and my Cabinet colleagues had to prepare for the budget session in the Assembly which began on February 6 and concluded on February 20. I had to face no-confidence motion and later we faced another challenge in organising AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi’s Dehradun rally on February 23. Meanwhile, I have set my priority to re-build Uttarakhand, which had witnessed devastation due to disaster in 2013. I have fixed myself the target of ensuring resumption of the Char Dham Yatra. For this I have given April 30 as the deadline for restoring road connectivity.

With people looking towards the new CM with hope what challenges do you face in meeting their expectationsIJ

I would like to assure the people that CM Harish Rawat would not occupy the Chief Minister’s residence as long as the disaster affected people are living in temporary shelters. We have learn that management is very important after disaster so I am using this time for planning to ensure execution of projects across the state including in disaster affected areas. My biggest concern is that will I not be able to execute the plans drafted by us. Rehabilitation and reconstruction are the biggest challenges before the state government and I will try my best to provide relief to the people. Again I would assert that we will restore road connectivity by April 30.

Do you think that your Government would be able to meet the deadline you have setIJ If yes, then how do you plan to achieve thisIJ

Of course yes. The State is facing a tough challenge but we are using all resources to plug the loopholes in governance. For this we made an intensive plan for execution on ground. For instance we have asked Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to build the route from Rambara to Kedarnath via lincholi. The State will provide medicine, water, ration and construction materials to BRO to help it execute the work in Kedar valley without any hitches. The Public Works Department will undertake road works before Rambara for which we have formed a Special Task Force (STF) led by a DIG level officer and nominated Director of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi to form the team.