)
Under attack from a section of ruling Congress MLAs, the Uttarakhand chief minister, Vijay Bahuguna, today said his government was committed to the overall development of the hill state and all the announcements made by him would be implemented in due course of time.
"There is no set timetable for the implementation of all the announcements. The announcements generally take time. But I am making it clear that all the announcements will be implemented within the stipulated five year tenure of our government," said Bahuguna.
The chief minister's comments came after a group of ruling party MLAs including Harish Dhami, Hemunt Kharakwal and Manoj Tiwari, who belong to the party faction led by union water resources minister Harish, had been exerting pressure on the chief minister by demanding that their constituencies had been neglected in the scheme of developments. The move by these MLAs is being seen as a ploy to grab plum posts in the various government departments.
Dhami had also recently threatened to resign saying he was being dragged in politically motivated cases in lower courts.
On the other hand, Harish Rawat strongly defended the MLAs and instead asked the chief minister to solve their grievances. "No MLA is lobbying for any political posts. They (MLAs) want to draw the attention of the chief minister for the non-development in certain areas of their constituencies," said Rawat. Rawat also praised Dhami for raising the issues related to the common people. "We should be rather thankful to Dhami," Rawat said.
Rawat advised the Chief Minister to sort out the grievances by the MLAs before it is too late. The union Minister said, "Several other MLAs too are fumed as promises made in election manifesto are not being fulfilled. The officials are not listening to them and corruption is rampant. The MLAs have to answer the public."
Lately, state Congress chief Yashpal Arya had been putting pressure on the chief minister to give top posts in the government corporations and other agencies what are locally known as "lal battis" (red beacons) to party leaders and workers in order to keep them in good humor. In the state party function held recently, Arya had openly demanded "lal battis" for party workers in front of the chief minister.
