OPPOSITION PAINTS A GRIM SCENARIO IN UTTARAKHAND

Dehradun: In view of the upcoming winter session of the State Assembly slated to begin on Monday, the Opposition is now engaged in sharpening its arsenal as a prelude to charging fusillades on the State Government for its perceived failure on myriad fronts of governance.

Given the preset drift of things, the Opposition might go to the extent of resorting to a gherao to bring proceedings to a standstill. Throwing the gauntlet, the leader of the Opposition and senior State BJP leader, Ajay Bhatt, said that Harish Rawat, saddled at the helm of the State Government, keeps on indulging in flippant verbosity. The Chief Minister claims to have settled 8,896 issues. However, things look dismal on the ground. Execution of just 346 projects has begun so far. This is what the report card of the State Government reveals. “We would expose them in full in the House,” said Bhatt while talking to The Pioneer.

Currently, the State’s law and order is at its nadir with the Government not acting on its pledges. The State Government is doing everything to keep the people in delusion that things are normal. However, what we are finding on the ground is that the mining mafia, land mafia and liquor mafias are ruling the roost, making fun of the Government’s writs.

“The stark reality is that the people are living under a fear psychosis and women are choosing to keep themselves indoors with lawlessness reigning supreme. Recently, a youth and NSUI leader Rohit Pande set himself ablaze in Ramnagar. Later, he died. He was a victim of political intrigues being played by two Congress factions with eyes trained on the candidature for the Ramnagar Assembly constituency. As we all know that the sitting MLA Amrita Rawat would not get the party ticket. This is what has exacerbated intra-party squabbles with two leaders indulging in shenanigans to outmanoeuvre each other,” the BJP leader said.

In Dehradun, a builder has encroached upon municipal land. A giant multi-storied building came up there. The MCD, though aware of the fact, can do nothing against the builders because of pressure being mounted on it.

In the State Capital alone, over 1,000 labourers are engaged in illegal mining at Raipur, Doiwala and Premnagar, but the administration is looking the other way because they could not dare to challenge the main actors with the ruling party leaders pulling the strings for them. If anyone dares challenge them they would not hesitate to crush them down under the wheels of their vehicles. This is what the situation is.

The State Government keeps on making several false claims. They say they are putting more emphasis on the schemes being funded by the Centre.

But the reality is that around Rs 800 crore, which was allocated by the 13th Finance Commission, has lapsed. Moreover, Rs 100 crore of tourism department lapsed because they could not produce utilization certificates against the funds released on time.

Interestingly, the State Government had released Rs 76 crore to the irrigation department to firm up infrastructure for flood control, but they have spent a mere 5.3 percent. Now, the next sugarcane crushing season is about to begin, but the sugarcane farmers are yet to receive their arrears, Bhatt said.

Ironically, the Chief Minister is taking several decisions and subsequently, government orders have been issued on 8,896 such decisions. But less than five percent projects have started so far. We wonder when the Chief Minister is unable to execute his own decisions how he would ensure execution of decisions taken by other ministries.

It is happening because the State Government is more engaged in saving itself than in acting on the pledges it is dishing out. The magnitude of the desperation can be understood from the fact that as many as 38 MLAs have been made Cabinet Ministers.

Earlier, they said that they would not charge examination fee from the unemployed youth, but now the Cabinet has imposed Rs 200 for general and Rs 100 for SC/ST aspirants.

The State Government had announced that no outsiders will be awarded government work, but it has allocated over Rs 500 crore work to UP infrastructure corporation.

Bhatt reiterated that they would do everything within the parliamentary norms to make the State Government to account for its failures on so many fronts. “We would see how the Government and the treasury bench would respond during the session,” the BJP leader said.

 

‘OPPOSITION MUST COME WITH FACTS AND FIGURES’

Reacting to the Opposition leader, Ajay Bhatt’s allegations, the State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh said that the House is supposed to answer all the queries to be raised by the Opposition. “If they think that the State Government has failed on any count they should come armed with facts and figures,” she said

She further said that LoP post is endowed with great responsibility, given the norms of participatory democracy. “Thus he should desist from cheap political grandstanding. As we have already finalised things for the next five days, they can raise issues during the zero hour. The House has kept time for all such issues.

As far as the charge of the Central funds having lapsed is concerned, the Union Government has already done away with the Planning Commission which is why they are not releasing funds to the State. Under these circumstances, if they think the funds have lapsed they had better put pressure on the Union Government being run by their party,” the Minister said.