The government was left red faced on the third day of budget session of the Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday when many ruling party members cornered it on a variety of issues.
The BJP MLA from Raipur assembly constituency Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ even accused the cabinet minister Madan Kaushik of misleading the house by providing wrong information. Kau was not satisfied by the reply of Kaushik to his question on an Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded drinking water scheme in Adhoiwala area of Raipur in the year 2014 which was later suspended. When the minister told the house that the area which was to be covered under the suspended scheme would be taken under another project, Kau said that the minister is giving wrong information as the new scheme is concerned with sewer and not drinking water.
The BJP MLA from Vikasnagar, Munna Singh Chauhan also created uncomfortable situation for Kaushik when he said that there is no regulator for the residential colonies in Dehradun which were earlier under the Uttar Pradesh Housing Development Council. The minister in his reply to a question of Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi said that an understanding on the transfer of assets from UP to Uttarakhand housing development council had occurred on August 17, 2019 but not all documents have been transferred to the state yet. Apart from Madan Kaushik, forest and environment minister Harak Singh Rawat also faced the ire of the treasury benches on the day. The minister was cornered by the BJP MLA from Lohaghat, Puran Singh Fartiyal and Didihat MLA Bishan Singh Chufal on closure of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in their respective constituencies.
While Fartiyal stated that three ITIs were closed in his constituency Chufal claimed that five colleges were closed in his constituency. Fartiyal even stated that contrary to the assurance of the minister and government the ITIs are being closed in the state. The minister later declared that no college which has sufficient number of students would be closed. The Bageshwar MLA Chandan Ram Das said that the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had announced that monkey enclosures would be set up in all the districts but the minister contradicted him by stating that no such declaration was made by the CM.
Thursday, 04 March 2021 | PNS | Bharadisain
