Going hammer and tongs against the State Government for having appointed former BJP MlA Bhim lal Arya as the vice-chairman of Infrastructure Development Council, State BJP’s chief spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan said on Monday that the appointment was tantamount to violating the constitutional norms aside from trampling the democratic propriety. Notably, Arya was recently disqualified from the Assembly by the Speaker under anti-defection law.
“The appointment reeks of the Chief Minister’s scant regard for the norms of the constitution as the member was disqualified under the 10th schedule of the constitution. Once disqualified under this schedule, he cannot be appointed to any remunerative post till the tenure of the Vidhan Sabha ends. In this case, the CM has lost no time to favour him with such a post to flaunt his affection for Arya who betrayed the party which got him elected to the Assembly,” he said.
Taking potshots at Harish Rawat, the BJP leader further said that this action smacked of blatant hypocrisy on his part. “He has been, on one hand, projecting himself as the protector of the constitution while, on the other, he has been making a mockery of the constitution. This is what real Harish Rawat is, an embodiment of hypocrisy,” Chouhan said.
Referring to the State budget being allegedly kept in abeyance by the Centre to spite the State Government as being alleged by the CM, he said blaming the NDA regime would not absolve him of his responsibility in the episode. “He is the person who took the appropriation bill before the High Court. Now the matter being subjudice, pending before the Apex Court, he is the one to blame for the impasse,” he said.
Warning the CM against convening a special session of the Assembly to have the budget re-passed, he said that the CM had better not to do it. “If he ventures it would spawn another constitutional crisis as the passage of the budget on March 18 is still under cloud with the Supreme Court having taken up the matter. However, if he convenes the session to have a budget passed for the next eight months or so till the time of election it is something we cannot object to. However, the best thing under the given circumstances would be to withdraw the earlier petition and file a fresh one, ” he said.
Reiterating his party’s stance that the state budget is far from passed, Chouhan said that the majority of the MlAs on the fateful night of March 18 was for division of vote on it. “It means they were opposed to it. The effective strength of the House that day was 68 with three MlAs- Ganesh Joshi, Bhim lal Arya and Haridass- being absent. As many as nine Congress MlAs chorused with us in demanding division of votes the number of MlAs opposed to the budget was 35. The Speaker suddenly announced that the budget was passed by voice vote. This is highly unconvincing,” he said.
He also rubbished the charges leveled against the Centre for curtailing the funds meant for PMGSY (Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojna ) and MNREGA. “But what the figures sayIJ When Harish Rawat was the Union Cabinet minister Uttarakhand was released Rs333 crore in the financial year 2013-14. However, the NDA regime has released Rs455 crore and 453 crore in the year of 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. Importantly, this year, the Centre has released Rs110 crore in April 2016,” he said, adding that the CM is indulging in a blame game to malign the Centre with the election drawing near.