Soon after taking the reins of the State back on Wednesday, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that he would no longer allow any blackmailer to grow in Uttarakhand. “I would have all the anonymous properties probed into thoroughly. My Government would come down heavily on the land mafias too. Uttarakhand belongs to its people and we would not allow an inch of the holy land be grabbed by the land mafias,” he said. He further said that he would request High Court Chief Justice to appoint a two-member panel to probe all the corruption charges that have raised their heads since the inception of the State in 2000. He said he would soon appoint lokpal to eliminate corruption. “Uttarkhand has suffered a lot over the past two months. I would plunge into repairing things promptly with no time to be wasted. We would evolve a mechanism which will be monitor or maintain a record of the funds being released by the Centre to the State and those the State releases to its departments,” he said.
looking exulted on being restored to the seat of power after over two and half months of political crisis, he thanked the judiciary and the people for stopping ‘the murder of democracy.’ “I am happy that the judiciary intervening effectively to stop democracy from being murdered has strengthened the people's faith in the judicial redress,” he said.
Replying to a question on the sting CD where he purportedly is shown as offering money and posts to buy the rebel MlAs back to the party folds, Rawat said he had said such things casually to while away time. “However, Umesh Sharma, who has been facing charges of land grabbing and other cases under Section 420 has turned a crusader against the corruption, thanks to the Opposition,” Rawat said.
Asked for his comment on the allegation that he himself had promoted mining and land mafias, Rawat said that he had never given any mining lease to anyone, including his near and dear ones. “I am open to inquiry. If it is done one of the former CMs who is about to join BJP and some important saffron leaders would be exposed. The same is my view of the land mafias. I have not helped any one of them. The land mafias would be weeded out soon. Uttarakhand belongs to the poor," he affirmed.
Without naming anyone, Rawat said he is very thankful to God for helping him rid a person whom he had appointed as Cabinet Minister despite knowing how lowly his character was. “I would not repeat such mistake again. Enough is enough,” he said.