INDIA bloc leaders discuss details of symbolic Assembly session in Gairsain
Monday, 26 February 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Members of the INDIA bloc and civil society held a meeting in the Congress Bhawan on Sunday to discuss the symbolic Vidhan Sabha session to be held in the summer capital Gairsain on February 27. The leaders attending the meeting alleged that the government is consistently ignoring public sentiment in the State.
They questioned when the government will hold an Assembly session in Gairsain when it is unable to do so in February-March. The government will next cite the Char Dham Yatra as a reason to not hold the session in Gairsain. It is not interested in either holding an Assembly session in Gairsain or declaring it the permanent State capital, the speakers in the meeting said. They further said that the BJP government did not do any work on the promises made in the party’s manifesto for the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. The BJP governments did not facilitate employment for the youths and have not been unable to stop migration from the mountainous regions where people still suffer from the lack of basic facilities and proper health services. Apart from Congress leaders, CPI-M State secretary Rajendra Singh Negi, Samar Bhandari from CPI, Indresh Maikhuri from CPI-ML, INDIA bloc and civil society coordinator Shishpal Singh Bisht, Uma Sisodia of AAP and others were present in the meeting.
Meanwhile, Congress State chief spokeswoman Garima Mehra Dasauni said that the decision to hold the budget session of the Assembly in Dehradun is unfortunate. She said that the Statehood movement was centered around Gairsain but 23 years after the creation of Uttarakhand, the State still lacks a permanent capital. It was decided by past governments that the budget session of the Assembly every year will be held in Gairsain till elaborate facilities are developed there. The BJP government declared Gairsain the summer capital but is hesitating from going there, she said. Dasauni said that a letter from MLAs is being used as an excuse to hold the budget session of the Vidhan Sabha in Dehradun which nullifies the basic concept of a mountain State. The decision of the Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara to hold a symbolic session of the Assembly in Gairsain will open the eyes of the State government and also prove to be a potent weapon amidst the Lok Sabha elections, she said. “It is now clear to the public that there is a difference between what the BJP governments say and do. By holding the symbolic session in Gairsain along with its alliance partners from the INDIA bloc, the Congress will show the government and its ministers how a session is conducted in Gairsain,” she added.
