After cornering the Congress-led State Government over relief, rescue and rehabilitation issues, the Opposition party in State Assembly, BJP, is leaving no chance to gain political mileage over the recently signed lokayukta Bill by the President of India.
Couple of BJP veteran leaders termed the Bill as impeccable and urged the State Government to implement it at the earliest, else the party activists will hit the roads. Terming the Bill unconstitutional and full of flaws, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna recently said it was passed by the previous BJP Government in a hurry and there was room for amendments, something strongly opposed by former BJP Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen (Retd) BC Khanduri. He said that no other State can boast of such a stringent law to fight the monster of corruption.
After accusing the State Government of shying away from implementation of the Bill, BJP State Chief Tirath Singh Rawat has alleged that the corruption has been flourishing during Congress regime in Uttarakhand.
"The State Government has been preventing the anti-corruption watchdog from coming into existence in Uttarakhand and will not be tolerated at any cost," he reiterated, adding that the BJP will hit the roads, if the State Government fails to implement it. Rawat said that the Bill was unanimously passed by the State Assembly in 2011 and now approved by the President, who even not chose to make any amendments in it.
In an exclusive interaction with The Pioneer, Ajay Bhatt, leader of Opposition in State Assembly termed Bill is completely unblemished and should be implemented at earliest. "The Congress-led state government has completely failed to keep a tab on the corruption," he lamented, adding that the Bill will help the state government to keep a tight noose on the corrupt
public representatives and
top bureaucrats.
"How can the Government talk of constitutional discrepancies in the Bill despite its going through an elaborate process of scrutiny by legal and constitutional experts at the disposal of the Home Ministry and the President of India," he asked and said it did not behove of a former judge like Bahuguna to see
"unconstitutionalities" in the Bill which has been approved by the President.
After condemning the state government for its lethargic approach for not implementing the Bill, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that Khanduri during whose tenure in office the Bill was unanimously passed by the State Assembly, the State Government's reluctance to implement it confirms the general perception that it is steeped in corruption and does not want the anti-corruption instrument to come into
being existence.
Taking a jibe at the Congress Government in the State for its reluctance to bring the Bill into force,
Dr Nishank said it is only natural for a corrupt government to be averse to the implementation of the Bill like this whose stringent provisions may boomerang on its own functionaries.
Dr Nishank said that the Bahuguna Government has a record of opposing
anything done with a
benevolent intention.