The good crowd of workers at the campus of the DSB international school at Gumaniwala in Rishikesh enthused the state Chief Minister Harish Rawat and he exhorted the party workers to brace for a battle to protect tolerance and secularism. He appeared undeterred by the most important political event of the day, the defection of the Congress heavyweight Yashpal Arya to BJP. In a challenging note Rawat compared himself with that boulder of Himalaya which would perish by rolling out but would not get broken.
Charging the BJP led union government for having no faith in democracy, he said that the people of Uttarakhand have witnessed as how cruel these people (BJP leaders) are and how much determined they are to trounce the political opposition. He said that he is indebted to the central leadership of Congress party for undertaking ‘ lokrantra Bachao’ Yatra when the President’s rule was imposed in the state. Highlighting the achievements of his government Rawat said that Uttarakhand is the state which is providing 23 hours of electricity a day to consumers. He claimed that the roads of the state are best in Northern India and said that 1343 new roads are being constructed and by the year 2018 every village of the state would be connected by the road.
Rawat claimed that in number of people receiving various pensions of government increased from 1.74 lakhs from the year 2013 to 7.25 lakh now. He claimed that his government has provided government jobs to 16000 candidates and process of recruitment on 14000 posts in currently under progress. Rawat told the gathering that by the year 2020 there would be no BPl family in the state and said that if voted back to power his government would stop migration from mountainous areas and would undertake measures so that reverse migration starts.
In his address, the state Congress President Kishore Upadhyay said that for the first time the issue of Uttarakhandiyat is being discussed. Heaping praises on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Upadhyay said that he travelled on foot to Kedarnath after the disaster and gave a message of safe Uttarakhand. The manifestation of which is that more than 15 lakh people have travelled to Char Dham this year, he added. The congress leader called upon the party workers to ensure that the security deposit of all BJP candidates is forfeited in ensuing assembly elections.