leader of the Opposition and BJP State president Ajay Bhatt has categorically said that Harish Rawat-led Uttarakhand Government is under the grip of mafia active in land, mining and liquor sectors. Bhatt also accused Rawat of patronising scamsters with no action being taken against the culprits despite scam after scam being exposed.
Instead of punishing the guilty, the State Government had covered up corruption by constituting a chief secretary level inquiry which had later given a clean chit to the government stating that the alleged scam in disaster relief was just a clerical mistake and nothing else. To intensify their demand for conducting a thorough probe of Nari Niketan, the BJP workers would gherao chief minister residence on January 23. Bhatt expressed hope that people would annihilate Harish Rawat Government in upcoming assembly election.
Bhatt said, “Congress-led Uttarakhand Government is going to complete four years in office but it has failed to meet the expectations of the public. For instance government hospitals are running without doctors with 10,000 pharmacist posts lying vacant, one lakh engineers unemployed along with 40,000 BEd and MEd youth without employment. In short, one can say that the number of registered and unregistered unemployed youth in Uttarakhand is about 20 lakh. The State Government failed to provide unemployment allowance to even five percent of the unemployed people while also failing to providing employment to even two per cent of the unemployed. Instead of executing work on ground, chief minister is laying emphasis on gimmicks. For instance he was seen going to Srinagar to relish Jalebi and to play a damau (traditional drum) at Kedarnath while the government had failed to facilitate reconstruction in disaster affected areas except in Kedarnath.
“In Kedarnath they have constructed helipad by spending `12 crore, spent `7 crore on road and provided toilets with `7 lakh. In other disaster affected villages, the conditions are yet to improve with electricity poles not yet installed and damaged roads still awaiting repairs," said Bhatt.
He averred that the people, especially those in disaster affected areas, are eager to teach a lesson to the Congress in the coming assembly polls. Bhatt said, "State Government publicised Mere Buzurg Mere Teerth and started taking senior citizens on pilgrimage but they were taken on pilgrimage only to one of the Char Dham shrines. The yatra was facilitated by GMVN which is struggling to receive payment against its expense on yatra conducted for
senior citizens. The corporation is unable to disburse the salaries of its employees because State Government is yet to clear its dues amounting to about `2 crore.
“The incumbent government even tried to shelter those guilty of irregularities in Nari Niketan with Congress State president Kishore Upadhyay alleging that BJP is politicising the matter by creating confusion. Even the State Mahila Congress president Sarita Arya has given clean chit to the Government in the Nari Niketan case. With 15 inmates of Nari Niketan being admitted in Doon Hospital and eight persons being arrested with investigation underway. Can the state government tell us why it is trying to suppress the matterIJ"
Bhatt appreciated the media for raising the issue which elicited advocacy from the BJP resulting in some justice being provided to the inmates. He reiterated that State BJP will not set the Nari Niketan issue aside with a gherao of CM’s residence being planned by the party on January 23.