Uttarakhand Government will seek special financial assistance from the Centre for developing infrastructural facilities in Gairsain and taking up other developmental works in the remote hill town over the next two years.
"We need at least Rs 500 crore immediately to build the required infrastructure in Gairsain and another Rs 500 crore to take up other developmental works in the remote hill town. I shall soon be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about all this," Rawat said here.
So far only 20 per cent work has been done in Gairsain where an Assembly building and a hostel for MLAs and officials are being built, he said.
A financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre is needed to do the rest of the work for which demands will be put before the Centre in a phased manner, the Chief Minister said.
The town needs to have proper road connectivity on all sides. Drinking water facilities have to be installed there on a large scale and electricity supply has to be ensured, said Rawat, who has just returned from Gairsain after a two-day Session of the state Assembly there .
He expressed hope that the Centre will come up with a generous package to help the state government in its endeavors in Gairsain.
Gairsain is an emotive issue in the state with Uttarakhand Kranti Dal which spearheaded the statehood agitation in the 1990s being in favour of the remote hill town in Chamoli district being declared permanent capital.
Though the Congress government has begun building an Assembly building there, it has so far remained non-committal about whether or not it intends to declare the town as the permanent capital of the hill state.
