After losing the race to become the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand to then Vijay Bahuguna and later incumbent Harish Rawat, State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh tried to draw some consolation by cornering her ‘pet’ PWD department during both Bahuguna and now Rawat regimes, but this has also turned out to be a futile exercise for Hridayesh as of now.
Her desperate attempt to regain the PWD portfolio that she was holding during the veteran ND Tiwari regime by expressing her unhappiness with the Central leadership of the ruling party only confirm this belief.
After party reposing faith in Vijay Bahuguna as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Haridayesh did have no option, but to fall in line about two years ago. However, when demand for Bahuguna’s removal started gaining ground during the fag end of 2013, the MlA from Haldwani Assembly constituency who is considered ‘Number Two’ in the Harish Rawat-led State Government, also threw hat in the ring, camping in New Delhi and Dehradun for over a month from the first week of January 2014, as her close aides informed, to offer her candidature for Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister’s post. But this time, too, she had to return empty hands.
However, as her close aides maintained, non-allocation of portfolios of her choice like the PWD department is equally disturbing for Hridayesh. Her camping again in the national capital for the past few days, as has been reported, only reflects her disappointment over non-allocation of the departments of her choice. Interestingly, as her supporters here claim, Hridayesh had got the title of ‘development’ to her credit during the ND Tiwari-led previous Congress regime as the region, particularly her Haldwani Assembly constituency, got a great deal of developmental works, particularly road works carried out during her stint as the PWD Minister in the ND Tiwari regime.
But this time the story is different. Apart from activists of the Opposition parties, even her supporters have admitted that this time, the pace of developmental works is slow and condition of basic services like drinking water continues to remain grim in her Haldwani Assembly constituency. More so, the condition of city roads and State highways passing through this Haldwani Assembly constituency is not less alarming.
Potholes on these roads are testimony to this fact. Delay in carrying out maintenance of roads has led to this situation of roads here, they alleged. The maintenance of these roads is late by about five years, admitted the officials concerned of the PWD department. However, as they have informed, after the State Government’s special emphasis on improving the road conditions, funds have now been allocated to the respective agencies to do these road repair and maintenance works as early as possible. But critics of Hridayesh here are of the view that busy in repositioning herself in Uttarakhand politics, it seems the State Finance Minister and MlA from Haldwani constituency has no time to look after her constituency during the past two years or so.