Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat has decided to sit on a dharna outside the state Assembly on the opening day of the budget session slated on February 11. The veteran Congress leader who also is the AICC general secretary has informed about his plan to sit on a dharma outside the state Assembly for the cause of the sugarcane farmers on his twitter handle. His office has also confirmed the dharna programme. He would stage the sit-in from 11 am to 2 pm on the day. Rawat has been consistently attacking the BJP government for not paying dues to the sugarcane farmers over the past few months. In a recent statement, he had claimed that an amount of Rs 22,000 crores is pending of the sugarcane farmers across the country while in Haridwar district alone, a payment of Rs 300 crore is outstanding.
However, as per the government data, a sum of Rs 42.76 crore is pending of the sugarcane farmers of Laksar sugar mill of last crushing season while the pending amount of the last crushing season of Utam sugar mill amounts to Rs 44.85 crore. Besides, Rs 24.94 crore is due for Iqbalpur sugar mill.
Meanwhile, reacting to Harish Rawat’s plan to hold dharna in front of the state Assembly on the inaugural day of the session, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the former CM is talking about sugarcane farmers in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election. He claimed that Harish Rawat is planning to contest from Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency.