State BJP president Tirath Singh Rawat alleged that the Congress-led State Government had failed to address the people’s grievances on all fronts over the past three years. He further alleged that the State Government was taking the people for a ride by slyly passing the buck of its bungling over to the Centre. They were raising harangues over the Centre having curtailed their budget. But they must substantiate the charge with adequate facts and figures. They must say why the Centre had gone for this curtailment. We all know that the BJP-led Union Government was doing everything to bring development on right tracks. This is why they had made it a point that if anyone failed to submit utilisation certificates of the released budget they would not be given further installment.
He said that when Vijay Bahuguna was made to give way to Harish Rawat as the Chief Minister they all hoped that Rawat with his mind attuned to the ground reality would bring about development in the state. But now they thought that Bahuguna Government was much better than the present one. What was now happening here was that instead of taking them on the path of development, they were engaged in patronising the corrupt. Due to this, mining mafia, liquor mafia and land mafias were thriving in the State. They were being given protection by the State bureaucrats at the behest of the State Government. The bureaucrats were now groping for ways to legalise the malpractice, he said.
Over the past three years, the State Government has arbitrarily scrapped transfer act or lokayukta Act, which was approved by the President of India, without taking the people and their representatives into confidence. However, now, they were seeking public opinion on the Excise Policy. The people were wondering what the State Government had up its sleeves, said Rawat.
Scores of murder and rape cases had remained un-cracked. They include Ferupur rape cum murder case and murder of restaurant owner and State Congress leader Sushila Sharma. Miscreants sprinkled chilly powder on the eyes of Vaishya Nursing Home in broad day light. Police had failed to solve the case. “If we compare the crime figures of 2011 and 2013, it has risen from 2475 to 1675 in Hairdwar. In Dehradun, the figure has gone up from 1833 to 2156. In case of Udham Singh Nagar, it was 1173 in 2011 while it reached 2322 in 2013, the State BJP leader said.
As far as the cases of atrocities on the women were concerned things were spiralling alarmingly. When Uttarakhand came up as a separate State the figure was 47 per year. But now it had gone up to 210 per year. In this financial year so far, rape cases were taking place with nerve-shattering pace. The figure is 56 in Haridwar, 45 in Dehradun, 37 in Udham Singh Nagar and 29 in Nainital, he claimed.
This aside, 1200 square meter land on Rajpur Road was grabbed by a land shirk and a Cabinet Minister forced MCD, which had sent a team to remove the encroachment, to return without demolition. Following High Court instruction, the district administration had conducted investigation and found they had encroached around one and half bigha Government land. But the State government put blanket over the matter. Now question is whyIJ
In Haridwar, the State Government had allowed Hero Motocorp to do registry of land @ circle rate of year 2006 in 2014. This resulted in the Government exchequer losing around Rs254 crore. As per the rule of business, if the Government waived off over Rs 1 lakh stamp duty the Cabinet must be taken on board. But things were done keeping the Cabinet in the dark.
The State Government has given 23.77 acre land of SIDCUl to the Supertech in Pantnagar of Udham Singh Nagar district. They purchased the piece of land @ Rs5800 per square meter and later they sold the land @ Rs32,000 per square meter. With this, the company has made profit of Rs252 crore. This aside, the state government sold 23.18 acre land to the Antariksh Builder in Haridwar @ Rs6600 per square meter and the builder on his part sold the land @ Rs28,000 per square meter. With this, the company made a profit of Rs262 crore.
Moreover, the mining mafias are brandishing weapons to the government officials. For instance, they fired shots at ASP Prahlad Narayan Meena when he challenged the mafia engaged in mining in Sonali river in Roorkee. In Haridwar, they have been doing mining under the cover of drudging. In Pithoragarh district, they have been given mining license in Kali river, the BJP leader alleged.
Even the government has failed to spend the funds allotted in the Budget. Since 2012, Congress keeps alleging that the previous BJP- led state government had failed to spend the money allocated by the 13th Finance Commission. But now they spent only Rs54.46 crore out of Rs124 crore released through the Budget. For the flood- affected area management, Union government had allocated Rs 76 crore. But the irrigation department could not utilize the sum because as per the terms, the irrigation department failed to raise the tariff by 5.30 percent per annum.
Even they failed to ensure clearance of the sugarcane farmers’ arrears. This is because the cooperative bank has refused to disburse the loan with the state government failing to stand as guarantor, Rawat said.