The members of the opposition attacked the state government on the issue of jobs to the statehood activists and problems faced by the people regarding development authorities. While participating in a discussion under rule 58, leader of opposition Indira Hridayesh launched a frontal assault on the state government for adopting an indifferent attitude towards the statehood activists who were instrumental in creation of a separate state of Uttarakhand.
Chakrata MLA Pritam Singh charged the state government for being insensitive towards the statehood activists and reminded that the Chair (speaker) had issued a directive to the state government on September 24, 2018 on the issue but claimed that the government has done nothing. The officiating parliamentary affairs minister, Madan Kaushik defended the government.
He said that the High Court (HC) had imposed a ban on horizontal reservation for the statehood activists and the government is preparing to challenge the order. Raising the issue of problems faced by the people due to development authorities, the Jageshwar MLA Govind Singh Kunjwal claimed that these authorities have become centres of corruption. Chipping in the discussion, Ranikhet MLA Karan Mahra said that impractical laws have been imposed on people and for clearing the maps of their proposed houses they have to make rounds of the officers.
In his reply Madan Kaushik said that the when BJP took over there existed 23 Authorities and 92 bodies and after an order of Supreme Court a new category of 200 meter aerial distance from the roads was added. “ Understanding the complexity we created a district development authority in each district and merged all existing entities in them,’’ he quipped. The minister requested the members to bring complaints of corruption to his notice.