22 Jun 2007
Recently, the Khanduri government completed 100 days in Uttarakhand. The celebrations were grand, the performance of the government ‘not so’ quips the opposition. In the past 7 years, the state has witnessed 2 Assembly elections and seen a rule of 4 chief ministers. The contentment though, the people sought post the division from UP is largely eluding them as yet.
Uttaranchal renamed as Uttarakhand in 2006 with a population of 8,479,562 is the 27th state of Republic of India. With just 5 Lok Sabha seats to offer, it is essentially not as much of political importance as it may have liked. The state reported a gross income of Rs 137 million for 2005 and therefore is not even the El Dorado that might have garnered economic weightage.
The last Congress government with over 55 scams exposed, has not deterred the masses and they are still hopeful of a promising and developed future ahead on similar lines, just as the distant dream of statehood was realised after a lot of bloodshed and turmoil.
The ‘Pahadi Janata’ was rather disenchanted by the 5-year rule of Congress so much so that it showed no two minds to strip Narayan Dutt Tiwari and his men off power and seek solace in the Maj.Gen. B.C Khanduri led BJP.
Almost a General and almost a million people, enormous expectations and 100 days. This indeed is an unfair proposition to pass any sort of annotation. Khanduri acknowledging this, asserted that 100 days were not a long enough period to pass judgement on the performance of his government, although he was satisfied to convey to the bureaucrats and lower rungs of the state machinery that corruption in any form, of any sort is just not acceptable. The list of other key achievements of the BJP government in its 100-day tenure included release of the 6615 workers out of a total 8318 of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, withdrawal of 103 vehicles provided to the Chairmen of various committees. Withdrawal of gunners and reduction in numbers of government advocates saving more than 25 crores in five years.
A transparent recruitment process, transparent transfer policy, curtailment in uncontrolled land transactions, immediate relief in road accidents, setting up of public grievances cell and implementation of an effective excise policy comprises the ‘to do’ list of the General. The Chief Minister said besides making the industries comply with the government`s directive to provide atleast 70% of the jobs to local youth, the state government was also trying to set up environment-friendly, small and cottage industries in the hilly districts.
Another very positive decision has been to devolve power to remote areas. Block level secretariats will go a long way in resolving problems of a far greater number of people than has ever been done in the state. However, it is felt that greater monitoring will be needed to ensure proper compliance.
The road is certainly tough for the Chief Minister and if these 100 days are an indication of any sort then the signs suggest a lot of hard work. The general feeling is that the government has moved rather slowly in this respect. It was also blamed for appointing some `tainted` officials to head inquiries.
On the other hand Harish Rawat, veteran Congress leader said making liquor cheaper in the state was the only `achievement` of the government. Another notable failure was restriction imposed on the sale of land to outsiders and the CM`s statements on land for industries led to a slump in real estate business besides hampering industrial growth, said Rawat.
State NCP president Suryakant Dhasmana accused the BJP-led state government of misleading people about development-oriented work. Taking a dig at Khanduri’s recent statement on industrial development in the state, Dhasmana retorted that it was indeed unfortunate and would send a negative message across to industrial houses. Ridiculing the claims made by the General, Dhasmana added that the CM has not zeroed in on a developmental plan as yet.
Singing the same tune is SP general secretary Vinod Barthwal who blamed the infighting between the Government and the party organization of the BJP for almost stagnant development in the past months. He accused that the internal conflict within BJP is evident as no MLA was voluntarily willing to vacate the assembly seat for Khanduri, (as he is an MP from Garhwal). It was only when senior Congress member T.P.S Rawat joined BJP, resigning from his seat, the CM could breathe easy.
Khanduri should take a leaf out of the Congress debacle and try not to repeat the same mistakes that the Tiwari government made. He will have to overcome the internal broil within the party and settle differences with Koshiari and Nityanand Swami factions.
“I may not be perfect but my heart is clean and I would do my very best for the State” declared the General. His clean image has worked tremendously for the party and is a major reason he has been entrusted with the top job. But this remains to be seen whether the General rises to the expectations and overplays the irregularities to put Uttarakhand on the progress charts. Whether the celebrations are momentary or will last long, only time will tell.
News Source: http://www.zeenews.com
RELATED NEWS