Harish Rawat mocks U'khand CM for high GDP claim

Congress leader Harish Rawat on Monday took a dig at Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat for claiming that the state's GDP rate is 32 per cent at present, asking him why he was not offering his magic formula to the Centre to reverse the country's economic downturn.

"At 4.5 per cent the country's growth rate is at its lowest. How can Uttarakhand's GDP skyrocket at the rate of 32 per cent when the country's growth rate is constantly on the slump?" the former chief minister told reporters in Haldwani.

"The chief minister seems to have found some miraculous solution. I think Narendra Modi and Nirmala Sitharaman should make use of his wisdom to reverse the downturn in the country's growth rate," he said.

His remarks came after Trivendra Singh Rawat in Nainital said Uttarakhand's GDP at 32 per cent was the second highest in the country after Karnataka.

When the GDP is high, there is more employment and more revenue generation but in Uttarakhand the employment scene is bleak, the senior Congress leader said.

"Both employment rate and revenue generation rate in Uttarakhand are at their worst at 13.5 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively," he added.