A few days after being reinstalled as the Chief Minister, Harish Rawat said on Monday that the Onida TV factory fire case and Aambaag cases would be probed thoroughly by SIT. Notably, Rawat had mentioned these two cases when he was out of power, the State being under the President’s Rule. He had even nudged the Governor to order fresh probes. He had said these two cases being examples of organised crimes, they needed thorough probe.
Besides, he vented his anger on Harak Singh Rawat, the ousted cabinet minister, and other rebels without naming them, saying that they had made him to do things to secure majority for his government which he hated to do. “Now, I am happy that the person (read Harak Singh Rawat) is sinking into oblivion. However, I beg to be forgiven by the people of the State for whatever happened during that troubled time. I swear that never again would I commit the blunder I did then. This was a compulsion and the generous people of my State would understand it,” he added.
The CM also referred to the Char Dham Yatra, saying that it is something nearer to his heart. “The number of the pilgrims being so great this time, we could not have made right arrangements for them. Then came the two-month rupture in the set-up, blocking things. It seems we managed to make arrangement for fifth of the total pilgrims. But things would be made up now as we are returned to power,” he said.
He further said that given the trend, the number of pilgrims this season would go up to the neighbourhood of half a crore. “Seeing how things are moving on, we have convened review meetings twice and visited the ground zero as well. I would go to the other places too to see how things are there,” he said.
Harish Rawat also mentioned forest fire, saying that it had wreaked havoc in the State. “Rain helped in dousing the fire, but the State has suffered a lot in terms of water resources. The level has plummeted. It would take time to get replenished,” he said.
“ We need immediate relief of Rs 3000 crore from the Centre. At for now, we need at Rs 100 crore. If we get the amount we would start building water reservoirs which will help us in 2017-18,” he said.
He asked the Centre to help them deal with the drought situation as they did in cases of the same in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. “The State abounds in greenery, but our agricultural lands are now all shriveled, dried-up. Currently, the officials are busy in assessing things. They would send the final report soon. But we need immediate assistance of Rs 1200 crore. We know it is difficult for the Union government to disburse the amount in one go. But the funds might be sent in tranches. They must understand that we need the Central assistance badly,” he said.
Reiterating that he is for full cooperation with the Centre in the interests of the State, the CM said the Centre and the States should act as partners in development. “We have not the least of inhibition to implement with full vigour the public-spirited Central policies like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna,” he said, adding that NDA Government changing names of projects is not right. “State level politics and national politics should not be muddled together. They have their own spheres and they should be kept so. We would coalesce when it comes to development, keeping in the backburner the issues over which we bicker locally,” he said.