Writing an open letter to all the office-bearers and workers of the Congress in Uttarakhand, the Pradesh Congress Committee president, Kishore Upadhyay has asked them to get actively involved for controlling and extinguishing forest fires raging across the State while also stating that he himself was going to a forest fire affected area to take necessary action. The PCC chief has also written to the Governor Krishan Kant Paul on this issue.
In an open letter to the office bearers and workers of the Congress, Upadhyay states, “Though the State is presently suffering due to the political uncertainty orchestrated by the BJP and power-greedy rebels of Congress to bring down a democratically elected Government, the present situation requires us to fulfill our responsibility for ensuring that the forest wealth of Uttarakhand is not destroyed by fire. Our Government may not be in power at present, but the forest wealth and wildlife are ours to protect. Considering this, I exhort all the office bearers and workers of the Congress party across Uttarakhand to participate in efforts required to protect Uttarakhand’s precious forest wealth and wildlife from forest fires,” said the PCC chief. While calling upon the party workers and office bearers to take immediate and direct action on encountering a forest fire by joining efforts to extinguish the forest fire, Upadhyay has said that he himself was leaving to an area affected by forest fire to make effort to extinguish it.
It should be mentioned here that comparatively lesser rainfall during the winter and in the past few months. Observers point out that the forest department has done little more than orchestrating scam in the purchase of fire fighting equipment in the past while local villagers make the required effort to extinguish the forest fires.