Ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay has said that the PM should address the various important Uttarakhand-specific issues like green bonus, which the PCC has been consistently raising in the face of central apathy. The PCC chief said this while addressing the media on Sunday.
Speaking at a Press conference in Congress Bhawan, the PCC president referred to the planned visit of prime minister Narendra Modi to Dehradun on December 27, stressing that he hoped the Prime Minister will address vital issues related to Uttarakhand which have been raised by the State with the Central Government on repeated occasions without any proactive response being received from the centre. The issue of green bonus, which the State of Uttarakhand has been demanding for quite some time now for the ecological services its environmental wealth provides to a wast region.
In reply to a media query, the PCC president said that the Congress will not stage any protest during the Prime Minister’s arrival in Uttarakhand. He said that the PCC had also postponed its Janashish rally programme which was slated to be held at Sahaspur on the same day- December 27-as the Congress did not want to further increase the load on the local administration and the public. Pointing to some advertisements by the BJP crediting the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the creation of Uttarakhand State, Upadhyay said that such advertisements do not make any reference to the contribution of the Congress party in creation of Uttarakhand. He also referred to a reportedly incriminating diary which contains names of those who had purportedly received money. Stating that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name had also featured in the said diary, the PCC president expressed hope that the prime minister, during his rally slated in Dehradun will also address the doubts emerging from such disclosure in the diary.
It is pertinent to mention here that since assuming the charge of PCC chief, Upadhyay has on several occasions written to the PM, BJP national president Amit Shah and others including union ministers, seeking necessary action from the Central Government on various issues related to Uttarakhand. The PCC has also held protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in the past in support of these issues which include the provision of green bonus to Uttarakhand, special financial packages for work related to disaster mitigation and related works apart from special funds and provisions for facilitating the desired level of development in the State.