New Delhi: It’s been just two month since both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand got BJP chief ministers, but the postscript to the high-octave campaigning and victory could not be more dissimilar. While UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been continuously in the news for taking “bold decisions,” in Uttarkhand rumblings have begun within the ruling party over chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s “performance”, or lack thereof.
The BJP’s Uttarakhand unit is abuzz with talk that unlike Uttar Pradesh, where the chief minister has “brought in major reforms” in government’s functioning, in the hill state bureaucrats are “still running the show” despite the party coming to power with a “historic” majority.
From banning illegal slaughter houses to going in for major bureaucratic reshuffles, Mr Adityanath has been in news almost everyday. But his Uttarakhand counterpart is said to be “working at his own pace.”
In fact, there are murmurs in the BJP state unit that ministries headed by political stalwarts like Satpal Maharaj and Harak Singh Rawat are more in news than the chief minister.
Incidentally, both Mr Adityanath and Mr Singh hail from the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. Though the Uttarakhand government has ordered a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in land acquisition for the proposed NH-74, it is yet to take any stringent measures against illegal mining and illegal construction, two issues that dominated the ruling party’s campaigning during Assembly elections.
After massive protests by social organisations, women right’s groups and the general public against liquor sale and a demand for a blanket ban on it, the Uttarakhand government earlier this week approved a new excise policy, levying a two per cent cess on liquor. Funds from this will be used for road safety and social security. However, women rights’ groups and social organisations have said that it is not enough.
