The promised ‘double-engine’ of the government has yet to start nearly two years into the term of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttarakhand. Due to this, work has not even on the schemes launched during the term of the previous Congress-led state government. The current government has stalled the schemes launched by the previous stat government. The Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Pritam Singh said this while addressing the media here on Sunday.
The PCC president opined that in the urban local body elections, the people of the state are looking for a change and viewing the Congress as a viable alternative. Clarifying that the Congress does not support encroachment, he said that the manner in which the encroachments were removed was not right. Demolition was undertaken in slum settlements and in various places encroachments were demolished without the affected persons even being heard. Singh further alleged that the state of Rudrapur city had been deteriorated under the current state government. He further said that the state government had not advocated its stand properly in the high court due to which the general public has had to face severe consequences. Criticising the policies of the Central Government, Singh said that the prime minister Narendra Modi seems to take most decisions in the dark of the night. He said that decisions like demonetisation, imposition of Goods and Services Tax and transfer of the chief of Central Bureau of Investigation are all decisions taken during the night. Expressing concern at unemployment, impact of GST and suicides being committed by farmers, the PCC chief demanded immediate loan waiver for farmers.
Addressing the media on the occasion, the leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha and Haldwani MLA, Indira Hridayesh opined that the BJP lacks the mentality to facilitate development. The Congress is working according to a well thought out strategy in the urban local body elections due to which the electoral calculations of the BJP have gone into disarray. She further alleged that during the tenure of the BJP mayor, corruption was at its peak in the municipal corporation of Haldwani. This is being revealed now through applications filed under the Right To Information Act. During the five-year BJP tenure here, the public suffered due to state of roads, electricity and water supply. Even today, people in rural areas are paying for water supplied in tankers. The BJP mayor had turned Haldwani into a garbage bin, she alleged. If the Congress candidate Sumit Hridayesh is elected to the post of mayor, the roads, supply of electricity and water will be improved in the urban and rural areas, she assured. Congress national secretary Prakash Joshi and other office bearers were also among those present on the occasion.
