Reacting to the Congress plea that the Election Commission should ban the BJP from contesting elections, the Opposition party has demanded the resignation of the Harish Rawat Government on moral grounds.

leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt, who had asked the Treasury benches to seek an apology in the House in the case of rape and murder of a girl in Haldwani, said the incident has exposed how much the State’s law and order situation has deteriorated of late. They could not protect the seven-year old girl, who went missing from a marriage reception on November 20 and whose body was later recovered on November 25.

He further alleged that State Government is protecting criminals. land and liquor mafia are calling the shots. The law and order has worsened as illustrated by the rape and murder of the seven-year-old in Haldwani and the broad daylight firing on a superintendent of police in Roorkee.

He also alleged that the time (six days) taken by the police to trace the body of the girl in the murder case in a small town like Haldwani and the daring with which mining mafia recently opened fire on an ASP in Roorkee show how insecure the common people have become under the incumbent regime.

Bhatt accused the State Government of not having the guts to face the Opposition in the matter that they did not allow the House to have a debate on the deteriorating law and order.

The proceedings of the State Assembly were stalled by the BJP members as they created a ruckus demanding an urgent debate on death of the minor girl.

Mounting a scathing attack on the State Government, Bhatt said that the State’s law and order situation has deteriorated.

The girl child was missing since November 20 and later her body was recovered within 500 metres from the spot from where she went missing, on November 25. In another instance, mining mafias fired shots at the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Roorkee of Haridwar because he had dared to challenge them. One person was murdered in Rudrapur on November 26. Another was killed in Bajpur despite their family having lodged a complaint, saying that they were apprehensive that he might be murdered, but police did not act on time. As regards the 2013 Ferupur rape case, police are yet to crack it. “The State is still grappling with galore of such blood-curdling incidents, and we demanded a debate on the crumbling law and order,” Bhatt alleged.