The State coordination committee of the Congress in Uttarakhand will be holding its first meeting at the residence of committee in-charge Ambika Soni on February 12 to deliberate of State issues.
Apart from this, the Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay will also accompany chief minister Harish Rawat to interact with the public in the assembly constituencies of Udham Singh Nagar district on February 11 and 12. Upadhyay, who is also the coordinator of the seven-member coordination committee said this while addressing the media here on Tuesday.
He said that in order to gauge the public mood, the chief minister Harish Rawat along with the PCC chieff will start the series of public meets and interaction with local party workers from Udham Singh Nagar district on February 11-12.
Upadhyay stated, “A programme is slated to be held on February 16 in honour of those who died during the Statehood movement. Family members of those who died for Statehood have been invited to this programme to be held at the chief minister’s residence. They will be felicitated and express their views on the vision of Uttarakhand state,” he said.
The PCC chief further informed that he had also written to the chief minister eliciting focus on the dire straits the farmers of Uttarakhand are in due to drought situation.
He said, “I pointed out to the CM that the State’s farmers had sustained loss due to crop damage caused by hail and heavy rains last year. This year, the absence of rainfall has led to a drought like situation across the State. The marginal farmers are the worst affected due to the drought while in many areas, the local residents have been struggling with scarcity of potable water. The State has cleared most of the amount due to sugar cane farmers which has provided relief to the cane farmers. However, sugar mills in the private sector are dithering the clearing of dues to farmers. I have requested the CM to start the assessment of the loss due to crop damage in the State. The State should provide possible assistance to such farmers with its own resources. Apart from this the State should also draft proposals and submit the same to the Central Government regarding special economic package to provide relief to farmers suffering loss due to drought. There should be some relaxation in the regulatory conditions for such disaster related works in Uttarakhand and other Himalayan States,” he added.
Responding to the allegation leveled by BJP State spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan, the PCC chief said that accusing the State Government of hampering execution of Central schemes for political gains was an irresponsible statement.