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The BJP led Union government has been meting out step-motherly treatment to Uttarakhand on top of which the prime minister Narendra Modi made a mockery of the recent earthquake in Uttarakhand for which he must apologise. The Congress national spokesman Randeep Surjewala said this while addressing the media at the Congress Bhawan on Wednesday.
Lambasting the central government, Surjewala alleged that the BJP-led NDA government had not provided a single paisa to the Congress-led State Government for the Ardha Kumbh Mela held in 2016. On the other hand, when the Congress-led UPA government was in office at the Centre and Uttarakhand was being governed by a BJP-led government, the centre had provided Rs 565 crore to the state for the Kumbh Mela held in Haridwar during 2010. Further criticising the BJP-led Central Government, Surjewala complained that Uttarakhand had still not been provided the Rs 2000 crore that it has been seeking in the form of green bonus for the ecological services provided by the forests and other environmental resources in the state. Despite the strategic importance of the international border areas in Uttarakhand, the funds for these areas had also been reduced considerably. Lambasting the Centre for the demonetisation step, he averred that about 50 lakh jobs had been lost as a result of the demonetisation move.
While supporting stringent action against substance abuse which he said had expanded its area under influence in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, he appreciated the Uttarakhand government’s initiative to promote cultivation of industrial hemp (bhang) in the state, adding that cultivation for medicinal purposes too was not wrong.
