The Congress has suspended the Dehradun bandh called by the party's trade cell on December 30against the "anti-people" policies of the Central Government.
The decision was taken in view of the inconvenience the general strike would cause especially to tourists visiting the State for new year celebrations. Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay said this while addressing the media here on Tuesday.
The PCC chief said, "The Dehradun bandh was to be observed on Wednesday to protest against the anti-public policies of the Central Government and rising expense. However, the chief minister Harish Rawat invited a delegation for talks and said that tourists arriving in Uttarakhand from across the nation and abroad to celebrate the new year would face problems in case of a general strike in Dehradun. This in turn would be unfavourable for the State at the time of recovery of the tourism sector after the 2013 disaster," he said.
Stating that there is no point in observing Dehradun bandh at present considering the State's recovery from the effects of 2013 disaster, he said that the general strike could be called later if needed. The PCC chief alleged that though there was a drop in the petrol prices in the international market, the Central Government is not transferring the resulting benefit to the public. He asserted that the Central Government led by prime minister Narendra Modi is not adopting any type of policy to tackle the consistently rising level of expense. Accusing the Central Government of cutting down the State's budgetary allocations, the PCC chief said that the Centre should release the budget required to resume stalled developmental works and achieve the desired level of development.