BJP slams Bahuguna govt over non-implementation of directions

Opposition BJP in Uttarakhand today slammed the Bahuguna government for its failure to act on directions issued by Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal on the mid-June flashflood and landslides in the state, and termed it a "contempt of the House and the Chair".
Raising the issue through a privilege motion in the House, BJP MLA Madan Kaushik said by not acting on the Speaker's directives the state government had insulted the chair and was liable to be punished.
As other BJP MLAs joined in, leader of Opposition Ajay Bhatt said if the state had acted on the directives, the situation would have been very different today.

In June last year, flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain claimed thousands of lives and caused largescale damage to the Himalayan shrines, including Kedarnath.
The Speaker had, during the last session of the assembly, asked the state government to initiate steps to clean Kedarnath temple premises, launch a fresh search for the missing and rehabilitate and relocate those displaced by the disaster, Bhatt said.
The state government had also been asked to build alternative routes for the convenience of the devotees, but nothing has been done as yet, Bhatt alleged.
Terming it as "contempt of the House and the Chair" former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said by "throwing the rulings of the Chair into the dustbin", the state government had tried to weaken a democratic institution for which suitable action should be taken against it.

Though turning down the opposition demand for action against the state government, Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal referred the matter to the privileges committee asking it to look into it.