Govt casual towards development: BJP

Main opposition BJP in Uttarakhand today accused the ruling Congress of being casual in its approach towards development and not spending Central funds allocated for schemes like MNREGA and PMGSY despite less than a month to go for the end of the current financial year.
"It is less than a month to go for the end of the current fiscal but the state government has spent just Rs 241 crore under a welfare scheme like MNREGA.
Rs 188 crore of the funds received from the Centre under MNREGA still remain which are impossible to be utilised in such a short span," Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt told reporters here.

Terming MNREGA as a programme meant for the poor sections of rural populace, he said this kind of casual approach on part of the government towards effective implementation of the schemes is "unpardonable".
He claimed during the previous BJP government in the state, Rs 418 crore were spent under MNREGA in 2011-2012.
Alleging that PMGSY scheme had met a similar fate at the hands of Bahuguna government, Bhatt said only Rs 80 crore of a sum of Rs 165 crore carried forward from last year has been spent so far.

Bhatt also accused the state government of not being able to avail funds, which was made available by the Centre under Border Area Development Programme meant for security personnel and people living in border areas of the state.

This shows that the government has failed to deliver in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the state, he said. The BJP leader also criticised the state government for withdrawing the VAT waiver on LPG given by the previous BJP regime saying it was an anti-people move.
He also lashed out at the ruling Congress in the state of reducing VAT on liquor, saying this proves that the Bahuguna government is playing into the hands of the liquor syndicate.
Criticising state ministers for doing departmental reviews ahead of preparing their annual plans in a very casual way, Bhatt said state health minister S S Negi did a review of 27 departments yesterday in a span of just a few hours whereas earlier, ministers used to devote at least one day to the review of just one department.