With an intention to get political mileage, Uttarakhand Congress has written a letter, which contains information about the Vijay Bahuguna-led State government’s achievements in the last one year, to mediaperson in Dehradun on Saturday.
Besides, they have also apprised the media of the failure of incumbent Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) Mayor Vinod Chamoli, who has been contesting to defend his mayoral seat, and appealed to the voters to beware of BJP political gimmicks.
They have mentioned some achievements, which were made or sanctioned by the BJP regime between 2007 and 12, as their own. For instance, they claimed that their government inaugurated the lachhiwala road over bridge (ROB) and widened roads. Actually, this was done by the BJP government. Political experts believe that by releasing the letter a day ahead of polling, the Congress has not given a chance to the Opposition to counter their claims.
In its letter, the Congress alleged that the BJP-led State government did nothing to build infrastructure in urban and rural areas of the State. It is an open secret that the BJP could not utilise the fund allocated under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rural Mission (JNNURM). They did not even fulfil the promises about regularisation of slums and did not focus on basic infrastructure like road, power and drinking water. Congress-led State government has launched several projects to bring phenomenal changes in the State infrastructure for the last one year. The details are:
To honour the Rajya Nirman Andolankari, the State has been developing Pauri old jail as State museum; sanctioned Rs 35 crore for the execution of drinking water project in Almora city; inaugurated Nanghat pumping scheme in Pauri district; developed important tourist destinations, approved Uttarakhand Special Area Authority; sanctioned Rs 20 crore each for nursing college in Pauri, Chamoli, Tehri, Almora and Pithoragarh; allocated Rs 75 crore each for the building of Doon Medical College and Almora Medical College and allocated Rs 55 crore for the construction of nurses hostel in Srinagar Medical college; promoted girl education; State government giving bicycles to girls in the plains and opening fixed deposits in the name of girls in hills; increased compensation amount for damage due to wildlife animal; increased compensation amount in case of damage due to disaster; launched scheme with the help of textile ministry in Dehradun, Roorkee and Haldwani; approved Spa park in Sitarganj, Udhamsinghnagar and Majri grant in Dehradun; laid foundation stone of Rajiv Gandhi cricket stadium & Mega Sports Complex in Dehradun; approved Rs 4 crore for Srinagar Stadium and Rs 4.30 crore for Rajasansi stadium in Pauri; laid foundation stone of Rajiv Gandhi adventure sports academy in Tehri; upgraded Rudrapur, Kashipur and Rookee Municipal board to Municipal Corporation; air services between Dehradun and lucknow to begin by May 2; giving skill development allowance to educated unemployed youths; laid foundation stone of Vidhan Sabha building in Gairsain; established minority welfare ministry for minority community; increased age bar from 35 to 40 years for public service commission; launched Samadhan portal for the redressal of public grievances; established Maulana Azad education finance foundation, which gives interest-free loan to the poor minority unemployed youth for self employment and to pursue higher education; to recognize Arabic and Persian education, the State established Persian board; made clear-cut guidelines for the issuance of domicile certificate; Cabinet approved regularisation of slums; inaugurated lachhiwala road over bridge (ROB), sanctioned three flyovers at Jogiwala, Balliwala Chowk and Bhandaribagh; made city free of polythene, widened roads, laid 44.76 kilometer long sewerage pipeline and established several tube wells and overhead tanks under JNNURM and approved solid waste management projects, with the assistance of Union Government.