Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party State Government on various aspects of its functioning. Addressing the media here on Sunday, the former Chief Minister said that the last assembly had taken a resolve that the next budget session would be held at the Vidhan Sabha in Gairsain but the State Government has completely ignored that resolve. He alleged that the State Government is forcibly holding this budget session at the Dehradun assembly which he further stressed as an insult to the assembly and Gairsain.
Going further, Rawat declared that he would stage a protest outside the State Vidhan Sabha in Dehradun on June 8 in opposition to State Government’s decision to not hold the assembly session at Gairsain. He questioned the State Government’s reasons of the purported lack of adequate facilities in Gairsain- for not holding the session there, adding that an assembly session had already been held at Gairsain in the past.
Referring to the protests held in the recent past against the plan to include rural Gram Sabhas under the purview of the municipal corporation, the former Chief Minister said that the rural areas merged with the municipal area in the past had now experienced the development which was supposed to accompany their transition. He went on to State that the previous Congress-led State Government had facilitated funds amounting to crores of rupees for bringing about the desired level of development in such rural areas. Past experience shows that large number of villages particularly in Dehradun were brought under the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation but these villages are still devoid of basic infrastructure and have not benefited much, he added.
Regarding the alleged National Highway 74 scam, the former Chief Minister accused the BJP of misinforming the people in the name of zero tolerance for corruption. He said the way the BJP’s central leaders had gone soft on NH 74 scam clearly reveals that there is also involvement of National Highways Authority of India’s officials in the matter.
Rawat also accused the BJP Government in Uttarakhand of failing to fulfill the promises it had made to the farmers of Uttarakhand.