Accusing the Congress-led State Government of perpetuating politics on the emotive Gairsain issue, the leader of opposition Ajay Bhatt said that the State Government should declare Gairsain the permanent State capital with full support of the BJP.
He lambasted the Government for converting the planned Assembly session at Gairsain into a political gimmick, averring that the Government intends to do nothing more than pass the supplementary budget in the session. However, the BJP has a long list of serious issues to raise and debate in the house, he said.
Addressing the media here on Friday, Bhatt said, “The State must stop this drama at the cost of the public exchequer and declare Gairsain the capital. The Government intends to hold the Assembly from November 2 at Gairsain mainly as a procedural formality for passing the supplementary budget on the lines of the cabinet meeting which was held in Kedarnath though its minutes were prepared in Dehradun. Soon after the start of the Gairsain assembly session, speaker GS Kunjwal, chief minister Harish Rawat, the Tourism minister Dinesh Dhanai and local MlAs will be attending the inauguration of the Jageshwar festival at 1 pm onNovember 5. This shows the government has no intention of running the house though it is slated to be held till November 6,” said Bhatt.
lambasting the State Government for its liquor policy, Bhatt said that anomalies due to the policy had resulted in excise loss of about Rs 100 crore in the past six months. He said, “The law and order situation has continued to deteriorate with incidents like the kidnapping of a minor from the home of a retired general who was also robbed. On May 14, Ganesh Thapa, the driver of my escort vehicle sustained serious injuries after being hit by another vehicle. He suffered from two months before succumbing but the government neither investigated the case nor provided any compensation. Apart from the liquor mafia, the State Government is also protecting the mining mafia. Earlier we used to hear of police stations being ‘sold’ but now we are getting to hear that appointment to posts of district magistrate and senior superintendent of police were facilitated for those who paid up to Rs four crore,” alleged Bhatt. Referring to the chief minister attending the foundation laying ceremony for a private international school at Nainisar, Bhatt said that the land had been handed over illegally to the corporate group by the State government without approval of the villagers. He said, “The labourers, sweets and even the priest in the programme were from Haryana so why is the CM claiming that setting up such private educational institutions will benefit the localsIJ”
Accusing the State Government of mismanagement Bhatt averred that the Garhwal and Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigams were on the verge of closure. He said, “Salaries have not been paid for about six months in these corporations.These two corporations are on the verge of collapse as the State has not paid their dues for facilitation of the Mere Buzurg Mere Teerth scheme. Apart from this the State is also treating unfairly, the guest teachers from different parts of India working in Uttarakhand. The government order on this states that the posts of guest teachers should be considered vacant. Recently, due to consistent loss PDS shopkeepers met chief minister Harish Rawat, demanding that the Rs 3,000 monthly allowance be provided to them as stated in the GO issued under the BJP-led State Government headed by BC Khanduri in 2011 but they were snubbed. The State blames the Centre for the increased price of pulses though a considerable proportion of the pulses recovered in raids across the nation had been hoarded by people linked to the Congress. How many raids has the State Government conducted against such hoardersIJ Instead they tried to discourage locals who were selling pulses at no profit no loss basis,” said Bhatt.
