Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today turned down Union Minister Harish Rawat's demand for a panel of officials headed by the chief secretary to monitor progress of development projects in his constituency, saying such a mechanism is already in place.
"We already have a committee headed by the chief secretary and similar other panels chaired by the principal secretaries of all departments to monitor development of centrally sponsored and aided development projects. So we don't need to constitute such a committee as demanded by Rawat Ji," Bahuguna told reporters at his residence here.
Admitting that he had received a letter from Rawat, expressing concern over alleged non-availability of land for some big projects in the Union Minister's constituency Haridwar, the chief minister said there is no dearth of land for any development project in the state.
"I share Rawat Ji's concern for the development of the state but at the same time want to assure him that there will be no dearth of land for any development project, neither in his constituency nor anywhere else in the state," Bahuguna said.
He said he had already written a letter to Rawat, detailing the stages of different projects mentioned by him.
The chief minister said 26.555 hectares of land have already been identified by the state government in Haridwar district for the establishment of a National Disaster Relief Force centre there, one of the projects mentioned in Rawat's letter.
Eleven acres of integrated land in the district have also been identified for a floricultural project which also finds mention in his letter, he said.
Bahuguna said that he will meet the Central ministers of all the departments concerned, including Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad when he goes to Delhi on April 16-17 for a chief ministers' meet and take up the matter with them.
When asked what message this "letter war" between two senior leaders of the ruling Congress will give to people at a time when civic body polls were round the corner, Bahuguna said not much should be read into the timing of the exchange of letters between them.
