Training his gun on the State Government on the emotive issue of disaster fund, the State BJP chief spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan said on Thursday that diverting disaster fund to some other heads is a serious punishable offence.
“The money belonging to the calamity relief fund (CRF) cannot be diverted without inviting punishment. The State Government has committed the offence by having paid the noted singer Kailash Kher Rs 12 crore from the CRF. The Harish Rawat Government has invited legal action,” the BJP leader said.
Chouhan said that many homes of those left destitute by the deluge could have been set up with the money thus wasted away on the singer.
“The State Government paid Rs 12 crore to Kher for 12 episodes of the serial filmed by him while Doordarshan pays Rs 10-12 lakh per episode. The State Government owes an answer to the amount being raised ten times as compared to what Doordarshan pays. The people are curious to know how the serial would help UttarakhandIJ Can it be a
substitute for infrastructureIJ” he asked.
“Now, the Government would have to pay the electronic media to show the serial on the channels. It would cost more money. The amount that would be paid on this count would be something beyond our imagination,” the BJP leader said.
He further referred to the State tourism minister Dinesh Dhanai having allotted Rs 83 crore project to UP Rajya Nirman Nigam to develop Tehri lake for tourism. “The Minister has overruled the tender norms in his eagerness to award it to the particular organisation,” he alleged.
He said that the Sports Minister Dinesh Aggarwal has given some contracts to UP Nirman Nigam for the National Sports-2018. “When quizzed as to why he had favoured it with the contracts he flatly said that it was capable of executing the work in the best way. Did he mean that Uttarakhand State Infrastructure Development Corporation (USIDC) is defunct or not competent enough to execute the projectsIJ” Chouhan asked.