By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 31 Jan: Targeting the Congress on behalf of the BJP, former Union Minister and former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said today that those who had never done any development work for the Char Dham were now making false claims of ‘Char Dham Char Kaam’.
Nishank was today addressing a press conference at a local hotel here. He claimed that, under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi, the BJP government had done unprecedented work in the state and the public was fully aware of this. Still, the Congress and the opposition were consciously closing their eyes and, therefore, not seeing the development work done by the BJP Government that everyone else could clearly observe.
Nishank said that, in the past 5 years, the state had touched new dimensions in almost all the fields of education, health, road-rail and communication interconnectivity, employment and tourism. He reminded that, during Congress rule in the state, the total budget for health was merely Rs 836 crores, while it had now crossed Rs 3,000 crores during BJP rule. There were scores of schemes and projects related to the health sector and aimed at ensuring treatment of every resident of Uttarakhand through schemes like Atal Ayushman Yojana. The BJP government took care of the health of the people of the state by bringing every family of the state under the purview of the Centre’s Ayushman Yojana. So far, more than 4 lakh people had taken advantage of this scheme. Apart from this, whether it was the issue of the establishment of AIIMS in Rishikesh, or the establishment of satellite AIIMS in Srinagar and Haldwani, the setting up of medical colleges in Dehradun and Almora, it was the work of BJP governments.
The BJP Government in Uttarakhand also ensured 100 percent vaccination of first dose of Corona vaccine and this became a leading state to achieve such a target.
Nishank sought to remind that during the Corona period, 15 lakh families of the state were provided free ration for 2 years, while 4.25 lakh gas connections were given free in the state under the Ujjwala scheme. Laws to ensure due share in property for daughters were also framed and enacted by the BJP Government. Uttarakhand had also seen a rapid progress in infrastructure development. Whether it was the issue of road network, or improving the railway network, taking railways to Karnaprayag, something that was not even imaginable some years before, or taking railway network up to Bageshwar or air connectivity, all had seen rapid progress during the past 5 years. He also claimed that Congress too had a double engine government before 2014 but did nothing for the state. The state was well on track on the highway of economic development today.
Alleging that Uttarakhand is a state where on, an average basis there was one person per family in the armed forces, the Congress was now claiming to be caring about the armed forces whereas, in reality, the party had accused the then Army Chief of being a street goon and did not even apologise for the same. At the same time, BJP under Prime Minister Modi really cared for the welfare of the armed forces and fulfilled the long pending demand of One Rank One Pension. Work was also under progress to set up a Sainik Dham as the fifth Dham in Uttarakhand and the government was honouring the soldiers and ex-soldiers in sharp contrast to Congress, which was accusing soldiers of being rapists. State Spokesperson Suresh Joshi, National General Secretary of Mahila Morcha Deepti Rawat, State Media Incharge Manveer Chauhan, State Spokesperson Ravindra Jugran, Vipin Kenthura, Badri Kedar Temple Committee President Ajayendra Ajay, Rajeev Talwar and many other party officials were present on this occasion.
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Dehradun, 31 Jan: During the press interaction, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also presented some BJP leaders including former BJYM president Saurabh Thapliyal, former district panchayat president Subhash Bhatt and former head Rahul Panwar who had filed nomination as independent candidates from Doiwala and apprised the media that they had withdrawn their nominations.
Nishank also claimed that, by the evening, the party would manage to convince most of the rebels to withdraw their nominations in favour of the official BJP candidates across the state. He also said that many rebel candidates including Jai Bhagwan Saini and others in Haridwar too had withdrawn their nominations.
