'Removing people's despair post disaster biggest achievement'

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat today said the biggest achievement of his nearly one year in office has been alleviation of the acute sense of despair that gripped people of the state in the wake of 2013 Kedarnath disaster.
"People were reeling under despair in the wake of the disaster when I took over. We have been able to remove this general feeling to a great extent.
"The pace of reconstruction work at Kedarnath has also generated hope among people. The message of a safe Uttarakhand has gone around and tourism is fast getting back on track," Rawat who is completing a year in office on February one told reporters here.

"We have done quite well in various sectors in the last one year. Roadmaps of development have been drawn up in a number of sectors on which work will start soon. For the first time in 14 years we have paid attention to our internal sources of revenue generation.
"Our aim is to effect an increase of 10 per cent in revenue generation out of the state's own resources without burdening the common man in the next budget," he said.
Claiming that the anti-mining cell was working with full autonomy, Rawat said illegally mined material seized by the cell from Haridwar district alone this year is far more than what was recovered from the whole state in the last 14 years.

Not a single mining lease has been allotted during his tenure so far, he said adding illegal mining is being reined in but mining along riverbeds which has legal sanction cannot and should not be stopped.

"It may endanger cities located along the banks of rivers," he said.
On the Opposition's oft-repeated charge that law and order machinery has collapsed in the state, the Chief Minister said the Congress' tenure of three years should be compared to the five years of BJP rule and a true picture will emerge.
"The stampede during the Kumbh fair which claimed many lives occurred during BJP rule, the Kaladhungi incident in which assailants killed policemen at a police station also took place when the party was in power. These were clear examples of failure of the law and order machinery.

"I concede that some unfortunate incidents did happen during our tenure also but we cracked the cases," he said.
When reminded of dreaded criminal Bhoora who escaped from custody recently, Rawat said the fugitive will soon be recaptured.
However, the CM admitted that the state government is yet to rise to the expectations of people.
"The state has progressed in the last 14 years but we still have a long way to go to rise to the expectations of people," he said.