BJP protests flurry of project launches by new Uttarakhand CM

Noisy scenes were witnessed in Uttarakhand Assembly today as BJP protested against the state government making "populist" announcements and laying of foundation stones of a slew of development projects over the past few days despite the House being in session.
As soon as the question hour was over, former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank alleged that one populist announcement after another was being made by new Chief Minister Harish Rawat and foundation stones of projects worth over Rs 1800 crore had been laid by his cabinet colleagues in a space of just a few days despite the budget session of the state assembly being under way.

Terming it as a violation of the Constitution, he said as per the rules no such announcement can be made outside the House when it was in session.
Leader of Opposition Ajay Bhatt also said it was against the constitutional norms and demanded a ruling from the Chair in this regard.
Cabinet Minister Indira Hridayesh admitted there was no provision to lay foundation stones of projects when the House was in session but said it had been done in public interest as the panchayat elections were to be notified soon and with the model code of conduct in force, the work on the projects would have been delayed.

Bhatt alleged other norms too were being violated by the state government in its efforts to please the masses ahead of Lok Sabha and panchayat elections in the state with the site cleared already for one project being transferred to another without following the required procedure.