Reacting to Ajay Bhatt’s allegation, Chief Minister’s media in-charge Surendra Kumar said that with BJP basking in the glory of the Centre-envisaged Smart City Project by putting up giant hoardings across Dehradun, they must share responsibility for its implementation in the city.
“Smart City is the concept Narendra Modi Government has begotten and it is the Centre that has selected Dehradun as one among 98 smart cities to be developed under the project. It is thus in the fitness of things that they enlighten the people of Uttarkahand on the guidelines the Union government has firmed up regarding their dream project. Besides, the State BJP leaders should refrain from playing the diabolical double- game of flaunting gaudy hoardings and patting themselves on their backs for the project and, at the same time, putting roadblocks in the way of the State Government intent on implementing it,” he said.
Kumar further said the allegation against the State government giving a short shrift to the interests of the people to be affected by the implementation is gibberish.
“We are keen to protect the interests of the tea workers in the best way possible. The Chief Minister Harish Rawat has instructed the officials to take care of the interests of labourers while zeroing on the land to be acquired for the Smart City Project. Acting on this directive, they have prepared a separate draft meant for the labourers. Not just that, the CM also asked them to shift to other lands in view of the people’s resentment,” Kumar said.
He asked the BJP leaders to first acquaint themselves with the details of the Smart City guidelines and then to educate the people on them. “We are ready to assist them if they seek it. But what is happening is that they are going hammer and tongs against the State government, exciting the people against it to win some political brownie points at the expense of the State,” the CM’s close aide said.
Debunking Bhatt’s allegation on lokayukta, Kumar said that BJP- led NDA government has been exercising a studied silence on the appointment of lokayukta. “BJP leaders here should account for this dithering on the part of their party’s government at the Centre instead of taking the State government to task. Should we forget the role of BJP when Congress- led UPA regime brought lokpal Bill in the ParliamentIJ They then opposed the bill tooth and nail,” he said, adding that they are waiting for the Union government to take the lead on the matter. “We would follow suit once the Centre promulgates the act. We are rather bound to,” Kumar said.