State BJP stages dharna

Uttarakhand BJP today staged a dharna outside the state secretariat here in protest against alleged discrimination against opposition MLAs and their constituencies, failure of law and order machinery and a development logjam in general.
Talking to reporters at the dharna venue Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Ajay Bhatt said development works had come to a standstill in the state during the past two and a half years of Congress rule with the state government always preoccupied with keeping its flock together.
"The morale of wrongdoers in general has gone up under Congress regime. ASP rank officers are being attacked by the mining mafia. Rapes and kidnappings are occurring at a greater frequency than ever before. This shows the failure of the law and order machinery," he said.

Bhatt also charged the state government with discriminating against MLAs belonging to the BJP by not summoning them to meetings held by Chief Minister Harish Rawat to review development work in their constituencies.
"BJP MLAs are deliberately left out of meetings held to review progress of development projects in their areas. This is wholly unfair as exclusion of concerned opposition MLAs from such meetings will never let the true picture emerge," he said.
Apart from Bhatt who represents Ranikhet constituency in the assembly, prominent BJP leaders including state BJP chief Tirath Singh Rawat, Rudrapur MLA Rajkumar Thukral and Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi took part in the dharna.