Cong opposes to assembly session in Gairsain in December

Opposition Congress in Uttarakhand has opposed a decision to convene the state Assembly's winter session in Gairsain in December, saying the place would become extremely cold then.
The state cabinet had last month cleared a proposal to have the session in the hill town in Chamoli district from December 7 to 13.
"Temperatures drop drastically in Gairsain in December and holding the Assembly session there, in extreme cold conditions, will cause inconvenience to everyone," Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Indira Hridayesh told reporters here yesterday.
The Congress leader claimed that having the session in the town would also pose problems to employees who would have to make arrangements for it and journalists covering the proceedings.

Hridayesh asked the state government to reconsider its decision.
A section of people residing in the hills have been demanding that Gairsain, a town in the Garhwal Himalayas, be declared the permanent capital of Uttarakhand.

The leader of the opposition also accused the BJP government in the state of lacking the will to fight corruption, saying that otherwise, it would have passed the Lokayukta Bill by now.
"Why doesn't the BJP pass the Lokayukta Bill introduced by former chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri? It was widely acclaimed and even had the President's assent," she asked.
"The BJP's much vaunted zero tolerance to corruption is just an eyewash. They have the numbers in the state assembly. Still, they referred the Bill to the empowered committee of the House," Hridayesh said.