Reacting sharply to the State Government’s decision to provide facility equal to cabinet minister to the parliamentary secretaries, leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt said that ahead of the election, the ruling party is desperate to reward the loyalists at the expense of the people.
“Things are strange. On one hand, the state government is unable to disburse salary of the government employees and, on the other, it is indulging in reckless profligacy by providing the parliamentary secretaries with the cabinet minister’s status,” Bhatt said on Saturday.
“This tells the sad story of how the Harish Rawat government is being run. The state is in the throes of a grim fund crunch with the treasury not receiving the bills of the departments,” he said.
“Harish Rawat Government is making history every day. They increased the number of the portfolio holders and now they are squandering crores on their perks. Contrast this with the state government having taken loan from the market to pay its employees salary and Deepawali bonus and the sorry state of things would become clear,” the BJP leader said.
Tearing further into the Congress-led government, he said that it was bent on looting the coffer after it realized that their days in the government were numbered. “Corruption is reaching its peak with the ruling party leaders being desperate to enrich themselves at the cost of the state and its people,” he said.
Referring to the recent collapse of the bailey bridge at Kotdwar, Bhatt said that the bridge, constructed by spending billions, had come crashing down in mere four months since it was completed.
“The official inauguration was yet to be held and it collapsed. The state government is looking the other way. It is clear that corruption was involved in the construction. More such cases would come out, making things clear to the people how the government is being run,” he said.
Bhatt said that if things continue in the coming days Uttarakhand would be regarded as synonymous with corruption.
“Things are very serious and we would raise such issues in course of the Parivartan Yatra taking off on November 13,” the BJP leader said.