Expressing concern at the damage being caused by forest fires, the Bharatiya Janata Party State president Ajay Bhatt has thanked the BJP-led Union Government while also lambasting the erstwhile State Government under ex-Chief Minister Harish Rawat for allegedly failing to take effective action on time to prevent forest fires from spreading across the State.
Bhatt said that the Congress-led State Government had been in power heading the State Government till March 27. The forests of the State were ablaze during the tenure of the former State Government but it did not take the necessary action to control the fire in the initial stages and remained apathetic towards the issue, alleged Bhatt.
He further alleged that the former State Government had not made any attempt to mitigate the forest fires nor was any report sent by the State to the Centre on this issue to facilitate required action.
Despite this the Union Government deputed three platoons of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in addition to which three helicopters were also made available by the Centre for use in the fire fighting effort. He said that at present 6,000 fire watchers are deployed in Uttarakhand in addition to 150 State disaster response force personnel deployed in each district of Uttarakhand.
He said that the Prime Minister’s office has maintained a consistent eye on the forest fires and reviewed the situation in Uttarakhand. Union Home minister Rajnath Singh himself talked to the Uttarakhand chief secretary Shatrughna Singh in order to ensure provision of all necessary assistance needed by the state to bring the forest fires under control.