Pillorying the Harish Rawat Government over its alleged dithering over the appointment of lokayukta in the State, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and a senior State BJP leader Ajay Bhatt said on Wednesday that the protracted procrastination on such a serious matter makes it clear that they are hell-bent on shielding the corrupt from the arm of the law to keep their corruption-tainted regime to thrive.
“It is sad for the State as the present regime had done away with the lokayukta Act promulgated during the BJP regime of former Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. This despite the fact that even the President had given his assent to it.
The present Congress regime has amended lokayukta Act, saying that the act would be enforced following the appointment of lokayukta. It makes it clear that the regime is against the people lodging complaints against the corrupt before lokayukta,” he said, adding that the State does not have lokayukta since October 2013.
Tearing further into the State government, Bhatt said that taking advantage of the governmental wavering, the mafias are flourishing everywhere and even the honest Congress leaders are kept under scare.
“Even a leader of Vijay Bahuguna’s stature is at the receiving end of things. He has recently said that he has not been pressured by anybody for anything, a statement that makes it clear that the reverse is true. We are convinced that he is being sent threatening letters off and on. We can recall how the present CM used to shot off epistolary threats to then CM Bahuguna, asking for progress report on so and so projects. Bahuguna is now in the line of fire because he has been raising questions over the CM rolling out flamboyant developmental assurances that remain unimplemented on the ground. Bahuguna rightly said the CM would be held squarely responsible if the party faces electoral debacle in 2017,” the BJP leader said.
Taking potshots at the State government over its alleged attempt to grab tea plantation lands under the garb of implementing the Centrally envisaged Smart City Project, he said their intention is suspicious. “Now, as we are staging stir, championing the cause of the threatened tea workers, CM is seeking to pass the buck to us, saying that if they fail to get the land to implement the project BJP would be held responsible. What they should do is to constitute a committee to earmark the land. This would help them to find suitable land and at the same time, spare the tea workers from imminent eviction and loss of jobs,” he said. Reiterating that the Smart City Project is a unique initiative of the Union government, the BJP leader said that if the State government bungles and the State is deprived of it the onus of such failure must fall on the State government. “No excuse, no pass-the-buck, no breast- thumping can exonerate it from the blame,” he said.
Taking sides of the tea plantation labouers and others who are in the thick of an agitation to stop the State government from grabbing the plantation land to the detriment of environment and heritage, Bhatt said suspicion over them grabbing lands for purposes other than smart city is justified.“We are all skeptical over the ruling party leaders backing the land shirks grabbing the common people’s lands for real estate and other purposes,” he added.