Uttarakhand election 2017: State Govt was busy with scams, says Union Minister RM Singh

Dehradun: Union minister Radha Mohan Singh has accused the Congress government in Uttarakhand of indulging in scams and not working for the state’s development.

“Instead of taking the advantage of central schemes and utilising the development funds allocated by it, the state government kept itself busy with scams and shouting slogans against the Centre,” Mr Singh said in Dehradun on Sunday.

Mr Singh, who is here to campaign for BJP for the February 15 assembly polls, said the state government couldn’t spend Rs 10 crore out of a total of 36.74 crore sent by the Centre under the National Agriculture Development Scheme in 2014-2015 and could spend just Rs 15 crore out of Rs 54.4 crore available with it under the scheme in 2016-17.

The Union minister also charged the state government with not furnishing the Centre with details of how it spent the funds allocated to the state under the National Food Security scheme or the Prime Minister Agricultural Irrigation scheme.

He also said the state government had not yet responded to the Centre’s letter despite several reminders seeking land for setting up agricultural sciences centres in Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts as part of the government’s plan to open such centres in 50 big districts of the country.

Rubbishing Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s charge that the Centre was not sending funds to Uttarakhand, he said while Rs 3643 crore were given to the state in 2013-14, Rs 5807 were given to it in 2015-16.

From 2010-15 during UPA tenure, Uttarakhand received only Rs 520.79 crore from the Centre whereas in just one fiscal year 2015-16 during Narendra Modi government the state was given Rs 1,159 crore, claimed the Union minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.