'Union ministers vilifying U'khand, not stating own failures'

Union ministers are visiting Uttarakhand to "vilify" the state government and shying away from mentioning their "failure" in fulfilling its demands, Chief Minister Harish Rawat's media advisor and spokesperson Surendra Kumar alleged today.
"We welcome the Central ministers visiting Uttarakhand. But, coming to the state only to vilify the state government and avoiding to mention Uttarakhand's specific demands pending before their own ministries amounts to disrespecting the country's federal set-up," he said here.
Targeting around half a dozen Union Ministers who have visited the state as part of BJP's 'Parivartan Yatra', Kumar alleged the Union ministers had confined their speeches to attacking the Chief Minister and deliberately refrained from talking about their own failures to do things from which the state could have benefited in a big way.

Wondering why Union minister J P Nadda had not disclosed details of his ministry's allocation for Uttarakhand, he claimed the Union Health Ministry had released only Rs 21 crore for a medical college in Almora which is to be built at a cost of Rs 327 crore.
"The state government had to spend Rs 122 crore on construction of the college so far out of its own meagre resources," Kumar said.
He accused Railway minister Suresh Prabhu of "disappointing" the people of the state by laying the foundation stones of only projects of a "superficial nature" in Gairsain.

"He (Prabhu) could not even open a railway ticket counter in Gairsain. That too when the Chief Minister has been consistently urging him to expedite laying new rail links between Ramnagar-Chaikhutiya, Tanakpur-Bageshwar, Kiccha- Khatima, Saharanpur-Vikasnagar-Dehradun, Deoband-Roorkee, and Rishikesh-Doiwala," Kumar claimed.

He slammed Union MoS for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan, who is also in-charge of BJP's affairs in Uttarakhand, for not being able to get Rs 50 crore sanctioned by ONGC for an international stadium in the state as assured by the firm.
"Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh saw neither excess rains nor drought in the state and went back after only cursing the Chief Minister.
"Similarly, instead of talking about what he is going to do to strengthen connectivity in the remote hilly areas of the state, Union Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad went back after spewing venom against the state government," Kumar claimed.