Cong protest march to Uttarakhand CM's house on June 23

Haridwar, June 15 (UNI) Congress workers from all over Uttarakhand would march to the Chief Minister B C Khanduri's residence in Dehradun on June 23, protesting the anti-people policies of the state government, state Congress chief and MP, Harish Rawat, told mediapersons here last evening.

Terming the 100 days of the BJP government in the state as ''a period of disappointment and disillusionment for the common people'', Mr Rawat said it had failed to deliver on any front and development had come to a standstill in the state.

He said the state was reeling under unprecedented crisis of shortage of potable water and electricity. While the people were faced with the shortage of drinking water, the government had made liquor cheaper.

He further said that pruning of non-plan expenditure may be justified on the ground of austerity, but the reduction in the plan expenditure, which had been effected by cutting down the size of the district plans in many districts, would adversely affect the development work in these districts.

Mr Rawat alleged that the government had failed to ensure payment of the arrears by sugar mills to the sugarcane growers, even after two months of the ending of the sugarcane crushing season. ''In Haridwar district alone, the arrears of Rs 48 crore of the farmers were pending towards the sugar factories,'' he charged.

Terming the recent defection of the former state minister, Lt Gen(Retd) T P S Rawat as an act of ''sheer opportunism'', the state Congress chief said that by manipulating his defection, the BJP had given birth to a highly undesirable political culture of ''aaya Ram and gaya Ram'' in the state. ''The BJP was trying to create political instability in the state.'' UNI