In a bid to counter the Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who blames Union Government for everything alleging that Union government is not releasing funds to the State, the Bharatiya Janata Party got the Union Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh here in Dehradun. During an interaction with the media here, Singh alleged that Union government has released several crores of rupees to the Uttarakhand Government but the State did not submit utilisation certificate (UC) of the released funds which is why they could not procure another installment from the union government.
He said, “For instance we had released Rs 9.7 crore under national food security programme but that fund is lying in the state coffers. For irrigation works, the union government had sanctioned Rs 13 crore and released Rs five crore but the state could not spend it. Under national agriculture devleopment schemes Rs 10 crore was released in the year 2015-16 and Rs 54 crore was released in the year 2016-17. As per my knowledge, the State Government has spent a mere Rs 15 crore out of Rs 54 crore released fund. Even in horticulture mission, considerable amount of money is lying unused. Union govenrment has proposed to open union government-funded agriculture science centre at Pithorgarh and Chamoli districts and sought land from state government but they did not respond to the letter,” he said.
Replying to a query regarding the burgeoning price of pulse during BJP-led NDA’s term in office, Singh said that at natinoal level the pulse cultivation area has increased but in Uttarakhand it has reduced. Although state government claims that they have been laying stress on promotion of local agriculture produce, the ground situation is different from the official claims. The Centre wants to establish one agriculture centre each in Garhwal and Kumaon region but the state did not communicate with the centre on this, he averred.