Rawat seeks Rs 732 cr from Centre for flood safety, rebuilding

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat today asked the Centre to release over Rs 732 crore to help speed up reconstruction works and flood management projects in the areas ravaged by the flash floods of 2013.
In a letter to Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati, Rawat said the ministry owes Rs 732.23 crore to Uttarakhand under the centrally-sponsored schemes (CSSs) - for reconstruction, flood management programme - andaccelerated irrigation benefits programme (AIBP).
Rawat said the amount is sum of the remaining portions of what the Centre owes under the three schemes.
He alleged that a number of projects are stuck midway as funds were not being released by the ministry.

When asked whether the issue has been resolved, Rawat
said, "We are already on way to resolving these issues. It will be our candidate. Our means Congress and PDF candidate. It is almost over. We are on way to resolve the issue between ourselves and PDF." Tomorrow is the last day for filing nominations.

The Chief Minister also downplayed reports that senior party leader Yashpal Arya, who had earlier also opposed him, was miffed at not getting a Rajya Sabha nomination this time again.
"He is a senior leader. Senior leaders do not get angry. They place their suggestions, put forth their views. There is no anger," Rawat said.

Tamta, a former Lok Sabha member for Almora, is a close associate of Rawat. He had revolted against the Congress leadership for naming Vijay Bahuguna as the chief minister after the party's victory in the he 2012 assembly elections.
Rawat replaced Bahuguna in 2014 after an intense intra-party battle. Rawat's detractors say that the Chief Minister's functioning is "autocratic" and he has been giving all key posts and positions only to his loyalists, citing Tamta's case as the latest example.
With the support of PDF, a front consisting of two BSP MLAs, one UKD and three Independents, Rawat government had sailed through the floor test after nine Congress MLAs revolted against him and joined hands with opposition BJP.

The BJP has 27 MLAs and can win the Rajya Sabha seat only if the PDF backs the party. BJP has already expressed its keenness to either back the PDF candidate or enlist its support for the saffron party candidate, an offer not accepted by the latter.
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Hours after Congress announced Tamta as its candidate for Rajya Sabha poll on May 28, PDF nominated Dhanai as its nominee for the Upper House of Parliament causing considerable consternation in the Congress which hurriedly held a meeting with PDF leaders to assuage ruffled feathers but to no avail.
PDF minister Prasad Naithani had rued despite the fact that PDF had already announced its decision to field a candidate, it was not taken into confidence by Congress before announcing its nominee for Rajya Sabha.

Compounding Rawat's problems, former PCC president Arya, who is arguably the tallest Dalit leader in the party from Kumaon region, is understood to have opposed the candidature of Tamta and even threatened to resign from both the state Cabinet and the party.
Arya, who had twice headed the state Congress, has himself been a contender for the Rajya Sabha seat.
After Rawat got a hint of Arya's resentment he sent a chopper to Haldwani to bring him to Dehradun and lend him an audience. They were closeted for over an hour during which Arya is understood to have made it clear that he was being ignored by the party, sources said.

However, Rawat's meetings with both PDF and Arya, apparently intended to prevent the possibility of yet another revolt in the ruling alliance, reportedly failed.
Having failed to bring PDF and Arya round to the party's view, Rawat left for New Delhi this morning to acquaint the party high command with the current situation which does not augur well for the party still smarting from the effects of a political crisis that saw his ouster from power and imposition of President's rule in the state for over a month.