With the 2013 natural disaster scam having left the State Government in the dock, Chief Minister Harish Rawat has embarked on a damage control mission through ‘janta darbar’. This is obviously meant to endear himself to the electorate. Interestingly, he has selected Nainital in Kumaon division to launch the public relation exercise. The darbar was held on Wednesday.
Notably, multipurpose camps or ‘janta darbars’ are nowadays routine affairs held at the behest of the district administrations to address the basic service-related grievances of the people on the spot. But Chief Minister sprang a surprise by presiding over such a camp in Nainital. The people of this region have welcomed the overture, saying that it would make a world of differences as far as empathic and sensitive governance is concerned.
Congress high command which has given a freehand to Rawat to do everything to ensure the party’s second consecutive victory in 2017 Assembly election has reasons to be worried with the Right to Information Act-spawned disaster relief fund snowballing into a major emotive issue for the people across the state. The party’s foot soldiers are perplexed and demoralised too. They sound at a loss thinking over how to neutralise the scam that involves the hapless victims of the massive natural catastrophe that devastated the State in 2013.
“We cannot forget that utter Governmental bungling with the disaster and its aftermath resulted in the change of guard. Now, the matter turning alive again might spell disaster for the Congress and its Government if the Opposition uses it rightly. And this is what is prodding CM to strike fresh chords among the people through his direct participation in such camps,” said a state Congress watcher.
As per the schedule of the Chief Minister’s Kumaon itinerary as released by his office, Rawat would take part in a public programme in Ranikhet and hold ‘janta darbar’ in Bageshwar on June 11. It would be followed by ‘janta darbars’ in Almora on June 12 and in Pithoragarh on June 13. He would also meet the people of Pithoragarh’s Didihat Assembly constituency on June 14. And he would wind up his current six- day Kumaon tour by presiding over ‘janta darbar’ in Champawat on June 15.