Firing fresh salvo against Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party State president Ajay Bhatt said that he was flouting the constitutional norms with impunity, in a reference to the CM allegedly clearing official files despite the model code of conduct being in force in the State. “This smacks of frustration as he knows that he is on his way out,” Bhatt said.
Before leaving for Karnprayag where the polling, countermanded following death of the BSP candidate, is slated for March 9, Bhatt met the party functionaries at the state party headquarters.
lambasting the CM on his alleged equivocal stance on Gairsain being declared as the permanent state capital, the BJP state chief said that he had been taking the people for a ride since the day he assumed charge as the CM. “He has squandered away wads of money in the name of constructing an Assembly building and a state guest house there. The same happened when Assembly sessions were convened there at the behest of the CM. A Chopper service was started with much fanfare too. Yet, he is yet to clear his stance on the emotive matter, an equivocation that makes it clear that he has been hoodwinking the highlanders while dangling the dream of the capital,” Bhatt said.
Repeating his party’s charge that the CM was indulging in blatant falsehood while slamming the Centre for not allocating the assured funds, Bhatt said that the contrary was true. “The Union government has allocated Rs 25,000 crore more than earlier in tune with the 14th Finance Commission recommendation. However, the fact is that the state government could not have presented the district plans for the year 2015-16 and 2016-17. The district plans playing a pivotal role in the state’s overall development, the state government has dragged the state far back. Bent on minting money and siphoning off the public money, they were least bothered about what the state needed for fast-paced development,” he said.
He dared the CM to come out with details over the use of the allotted funds through presenting the utilisation certificates (UC).
Taking a dig at the CM over diverting the disaster relief fund to rope in the cricketer Virat Kohli in a documentary film meant to highlight the state’s progress, post 2013 deluge, he said with Kohli denying to have received any money, the state government must explain where the said fund had gone.