Uttarakhand will strongly advocate for gaining a 25 per cent share in the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC). Most of the issues relating to division of estate with Uttar Pradesh have been resolved, but to finalise the division, a meeting will be held between UP chief secretary Javed Usmani and Uttarakhand chief secretary Subhash Kumar.
Kumar said this while chairing a meeting on the issue in Dehradun on Monday. During the meeting, he instructed those departments whose division process is still pending, to present their claims as procedure dictates, adding that a copy of these will be forwarded to the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh to fix a date of meeting and discussion with him.
The chief secretary said that it is a positive sign that at the time of the disaster faced in Uttarakhand, the Uttar Pradesh Government had released a sum of Rs 145 crore as instalment of pension. The Uttar Pradesh Government had paid a total of Rs 1,545 crore in pensions. Kumar also stressed that Uttarakhand should have 25 per cent stake in THDC and added that the stake in all THDC projects since November 2000 will benefit the State.
He also said that the Uttar Pradesh Government has given its nod on most points proposed by the Uttarakhand Government but the final decision is still pending. He instructed principal secretaries and secretaries of the departments concerned to talk to their Uttar Pradesh counterparts to arrive at a decision. The cases which are sub judice should be advocated properly, he added.
Issues related to power, forest corporation, sugarcane, cooperatives, agriculture, finance, PWD, transport, tourism, Panchayati Raj, prisons and rural development among other issues were discussed in the meeting on Monday. Kumar directed officials that a clear picture on all the issues should be presented in a fortnight.