Chief Minister Harish Rawat has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union Government and the BJP State unit of trying to exert “unnecessary pressure”on the State Election Commission. He also alleged that the BJP was reportedly offering individuals Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore to contest in the coming Vidhan Sabha election with the intention of cutting down the vote share of Congress candidates. Addressing the media at the Congress Bhawan, the CM also attempted to present an image of a united and strong Congress sans any differences between him and the Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay.
Spaking at the Press conference, the Chief Minister Harish Rawat opined that the BJP had become habituated to infringe upon democratic norms. The BJP has leaders have now also taken to conducting ‘surgical strike’ as part of the efforts they are undertaking to divide the vote share of the Congress party in Uttarahkand, he said.
Rawat said, “The BJP has deputed two of its MlAs to the task of sponsoring candidates in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections. These two MlAs have also been authorised by the party with power to expend money amounting to anywhere from Rs one crore to Rs five crore for conducting the task they have been given.
The sole purpose for sponsoring such candidates will be to divide the vote share of the Congress partym,” opined the chief minister.
Rawat went on to further accuse the BJP of attempting to exert pressure on the State Election Commission to the detriment of the Congress. It was for the first time in Uttarakhand that the state election commission was coming under undue pressure, which does not bode well, alleged the chief minister, in reference to the BJP leaders recently leveling accusations on electoral officials in the state of favouring the Congress party. Regarding the party’s organisational issues, Rawat said that agreement had been reached on candidates to be fielded by the party in 63 out of thye 70 Vidhan Sabha constituencies with the candidates for the remaining seats to be finalised soon.
He said that the list of the party candidates will be finalised by January 16.
Speaking on the financial situation of the State, Rawat acknowledged that the state government is facing a financial crunch.
However, he blamed the Union Government for this, stating that large sums of money meant to be released to the State Government by the Union government under various schemes and heads were still pending with the Centre. As an example, the chief minister said that a sum of Rs 922.99 crore food subsidy reimbursement bills that has been submitted to Union Ministry for Food and Public Distribution is yet to be released to the State as required. The chief minister further said that a substantial amount to be released to the State as part of the June 2013 disaster reconstruction package has not been released to the State Government by the Central Government, about three years after the disaster. Stating that the state has limited resources for revenue generation, Rawat opined that Uttarakhand is not able to capitalise on its hydropower generation potential.
The lakhwar 300 MW and Kishau 660 MW are still pending for investment approval by centre. The CM also shared copies of suggestions he had submitted to the Central Government for 2017-18 in matters related to the state. One of the suggestions made by the CM to the Centre was that instead of giving a three-year period of completion of tasks under disaster relief fund, the period should be extended to 2020.