PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has demanded that the government should remove the Garhwal Inspector General (IG) of police Rajiv Swarup till a fair and impartial investigation in the Rs 50 crore land grabbing case in Roorkee, Haridwar district is completed.
Interacting with the media persons here on Saturday, the PCC president said two police personnel deputed in the office of Garhwal IG were recently arrested by the STF in a land grabbing case. He said that both the police personnel were posted in Pithoragarh district but were on deputation in the office of IG Garhwal.
Mahara said both these arrested police personnel were in contact with the arrested BJP councillor Manish Valmiki alias Bowler and used to call on his phone multiple times in a day. He alleged that some influential person was in contact with the criminals by the phones of these policemen.
The PCC president said that the State government should cancel the lease deed of the 142 acre land of the George Everest Estate. He said that the State government first spent a sum of Rs 23 crore on maintenance of the land and then handed it over to a company owned by Baba Ramdev aide Acharya Balkrishan at an annual lease of only Rs one crore for 15 years.
Mahara said that the State government has handed over the construction of 13 km long ropeway between Sonprayag and Kedarnath on a contract of Rs 4,081 crore to Adani group which shows special affinity the government has for Adani. He said that apart from affecting the livelihood of the locals, the ropeway project will affect the environment of the geologically sensitive Kedarnath area.
He said that the State government has recently assessed that the State has incurred losses worth Rs 7,500 crore in the disaster. This does not include the damage in Dehradun and Nanadanagar of Chamoli. Mahara said that the State government had demanded only Rs 5,700 crore from the union government which had announced a sum of only Rs 1,200 crore for the State.
Mahara said that last year 77 crimes per one lakh of population were registered in the State which is much higher than national average of 65 per lakh. He said that the cases of crime against women and children are also increasing.
