Taking on the counter made by the former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari regarding the State Government’s charge against the Centre, the Chief Minister’s media in-charge Surendra Kumar said that Koshyari had vented his suppressed anger against the BJP-led NDA regime on the Congress-led Uttarakhand Government.
“Koshyari must be well aware of the fact that the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation has robbed the State of `2,500 crore. He had even raised the matter in the Parliament. But he beat a hasty retreat following pressure from the State BJP. Four other MPs from the State chose to keep mum too on the matter because of the pressure from within the party. Had all five BJP MPs raised their voice in unison in the Parliament in defence of the interests of the State things might not have gone against the State,” he said.
He further said with three out of five MPs being the former CMs, it is unlikely that they are not aware of the State’s precarious financial position. “They must know how much the State was receiving on the count of the Centrally aided projects before and how much the state came to lose thanks to the implementation of the 14th Commission’s recommendation.
Had they made bold to broach the matter before the Prime Minister while he was at Rishikesh the state might have received some package. But they did not do so lest the party leadership took it amiss,” he said.
Kumar appealed to them to read Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s speech delivered in the Parliament on February 28. “Jaitley said that they had changed the funding pattern of 24 projects and withdrawn the Centre’s assistance from eight projects. This made the state lose `2500 crore. With the implementation of 14 Finance Commission, the State would lose `1530 crore by way of general central assistance, ` 700 crore by way of special central assistance and `350 crore by way of special central plan assistance,” Kumar said.
Making comparison with Himachal Pradesh, Kumar said that the commission had made Uttarakhand per person benefit standing at a mere
`1292 while Himachal would get `12,413 as per person benefit.
He reiterated the State Government’s demand for central assistance to shift
352 disaster- affected villages to safer places. “The Chief Minister Harish Rawat
has made several appeals to the Prime Minister. But things are still stagnating,” he added.