The outgoing president of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee, Kishore Upadhyay said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party State Government does not take corrective measures within a fortnight, the Congress party will organise a State-wide closure for two hours to protest on various issues.
Hours before the news of his replacement by Pritam Singh was made public, Upadhyay addressed the media at the Congress Bhawan lambasting the BJP Governments at the Centre and State. He said, “During his recent Kedarnath visit, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi left people of the state disappointed. With a substantial population of serving and retired servicemen in the State, one was hoping that the Prime Minister would say something about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir but he did not.
On top of this, the authorities kept the Kedarnath MlA Manoj Rawat away from the Prime Minister on the occasion which is questionable,” said Upadhyay, while also noting that he had not seen the Garhwal MP Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri at Kedarnath on the occasion though the event was in his constituency.
He lambasted the BJP State Government for increasing the price of wheat and rice rationed out to Above Poverty line card holders.
Apart from increasing the price and reducing the quantity of ration wheat and rice, the state had nearly closed the provision of sugar for the card holders.
Upadhyay also said that the state government should take cognisance of women agitating against liquor in Uttarakhand and withdraw all cases registered against them.
Seeking a proactive response from the state on these issues, he said that in the absence of any improvement, the Congress will stage a two-hour State-wide closure after a fortnight in protest.