The Congress in Uttarakhand today accused the Trivendra Singh Rawat government of backing out of its pre-poll promises to farmers within its "extremely disappointing" first 100 days in office.
The party said it had been forced to take up cudgels on behalf of debt-ridden peasants and raise issues related to them, from the streets to the state legislature.
"When BJP got a massive mandate in Uttarakhand we had decided to keep quiet and let it perform for the next six months. But the way it has backed out of the pre-poll promises made to farmers in the first 100 days in office has forced us to break our silence and raise our voice against the injustices they are being subjected to," Pradesh Congress President Pritam Singh said at a press conference here.
Charging the ruling party with being indifferent to the plight of farmers after capturing power, he said it had forgot all about its promises of a loan waiver to farmers, providing them interest-free loans or paying sugarcane growers of the state their dues.
Singh also said the budget passed by the state government recently was "anti-farmer", as it had "substantially curtailed" the allocations made for the agriculture sector.
The Congress had staged demonstrations in Dehradun against the state and central governments when a debt-ridden farmer had allegedly committed suicide in Berinag block of Pithiragarh district.
The party had also raised farmer-related issues in the state assembly after the Mandsaur firing incident forcing several adjournments of the proceedings in the House.
Singh said the previous Congress government had been providing wheat at Rs 4 per kg and rice at Rs 9 per kg to the poor under the state food scheme (Rajya Khadya Yojana) but the BJP government led by Trivendra had increased the prices to Rs 8.60 and Rs 15 per kg respectively.
"We were providing sugar at the rate of just Rs 13.60 per kg to the poor but the Centre put an end to the subsidy on sugar and the poor are now forced to buy it for Rs 45-47 a kg," he alleged.
Alleging that the BJP's much vaunted Lokayukta and Transfer acts though tabled in the state assembly along with the report of the standing committee were yet to see the light of day, he said they had still not been passed by the House despite being the state government's "so-called" priorities.
He also alleged that the Lokayukta as envisioned by the state government had no independent powers.
"The Lokayukta as envisioned by the state government cannot investigate a case it deems fit. It has to go by what majority of its members want it to do. My question is why can't the Lokayukta probe a case even if a single member wants it," he said.
"A toothless Lokayukta is not going to serve any puprose," he added.
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