Vindicated by Ukhand govt's decision to pass appropriation

Opposition BJP said the Uttarakhand government's decision to pass the 'appropriation bill' in the Assembly again proved the veracity of the party's claim that the legislation was not passed by the House on March 18 with the government reduced to a minority.

"The state Cabinet's decision to have the appropriation bill on budget passed by the Assembly afresh vindicates our claim that it had not been passed by the House when tabled on March 18 with a majority of MLAs against it. It shows that the Harish Rawat government had been reduced to a minority on that day itself," state BJP President Ajay Bhatt said in a statement.

Had the legislation been passed, the Cabinet would not have taken the decision to have it passed again, he said.

The state Cabinet took the decision to pass the bill on June 28 at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

Alleging that Rawat had no right to stay in power as his government had already fallen technically on March 18, Bhatt said the government's continuance in office was a "fraud on the Constitution".

He said the Centre had brought an ordinance in time to pass the state's budget and save the state from a financial crisis as its coffers would have gone empty from April 1 onwards with the administration left without any funds, including for paying salaries.

"The Cabinet's decision also proves the falsehood of the CM's repeated inquiry about the state budget. The fact is that the budget whose whereabouts he wanted to know lay in his own pocket. He was just trying to mislead people by tossing the question to the Centre from every possible public forum," Bhatt said.

He claimed people could see through Rawat's gameplan and have made up their mind to dislodge him from power at the hustings next year.

Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal had declared the budget as passed in the Assembly but central ministers have been making claims to the contrary.