Govt ignored Sitarganj: Bahuguna

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 30

In a letter to Chief Minister Harish Rawat on completion of his first year in office, his predecessor Vijay Bahuguna has alleged that many of the decisions taken during his (Bahuguna) tenure, particularly those concerning his own Sitarganj Assembly segment, have not been implemented.

Bahuguna announced that a Jan aakrosh rally would be organised on these issues at Udham Singh Nagar district on February 15. Bahuguna alleged that his government had cleared regularisation of land under sections 4 and 1 (A) at Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar district, but the Harish Rawat regime had not implemented it in the past one year. Bahuguna, while fighting the Assembly byelection from Sitarganj in July 2012, had promised the Bengali settlers that their landholdings would be regularised. His government had initiated the process, but with the change of guard in Uttarakhand in February 2014, the issue was relegated to the backburner, he said.

Bahuguna had to face the wrath of the people of his Assembly segment and BJP legislator Kiran Mandal, who had quit his seat to pave way for Bahuguna to contest. He publicly chided Bahuguna for not keeping his promise of regularisation of land to Bengali settlers.

Bahuguna, in his letter, charged that as per his information, the rules for regularisation had been framed but were awaiting Cabinet approval. He said certain amendments in the Zamindari Land Abolition Act were proposed, which would give relief to land lease holders of Sitarganj/ Shakti Farm, are pending Cabinet approval. He further stated that he had taken up the issue with the Chief Minister personally many a time, but nothing concrete had been done in this regard. He requested the Chief Minister to take up these matters for Cabinet approval at the earliest. He said he would hold a Jan Aakrosh rally to raise these issues at Udham Singh Nagar on February 15.

Bahuguna told mediapersons in New Delhi today that the Harish Rawat government had failed to pursue many decisions taken during his tenure in public interest. He said his policy of industrialisation, a decision to regularise services of contractual employees who have completed five years of service and regularisation of slum colonies were put on the backburner. He said one year is enough for any government to take decisions on public welfare. He reiterated his resolve to hold a rally on February 15.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said being a legislator, Vijay Bahuguna has every right to write to him. He said issues raised by him would be taken up by the Cabinet soon. In a lighter vain, he said that he himself used to write letters to Vijay Bahuguna on matters of public interest when he was the Chief Minister and now, Bahuguna has started writing to him.