Non-allotment of portfolios even 13 days after Harish Rawat took charge as Uttarakhand Chief Minister became a source of embarrassment to the ruling Congress in the Vidhan Sabha on Thursday.
The opposition BJP wanted Mr. Rawat to announce the portfolios immediately or get a notification from the Governor that he could get the budget passed without distributing portfolios.
Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal adjourned the House as BJP members thronged the well, arguing that the budget session was unconstitutional without Cabinet members getting their portfolios.
The inordinate delay in portfolio allocation indicates that Mr. Rawat is facing a stiff resistance from different factions, given that they had demanded — when Vijay Bahuguna was shunted out — that the Chief Minister be from one among them and not someone sent by the Congress high command. “Though a well-meaning leader, Mr. Rawat seems to be unable to satisfy the warring factions within the Congress, and this will further weaken the party’s chances in the Lok Sabha polls,” senior congressmen said.
The BJP forced several adjournments, accusing the government of trying to sell off the Sainik farm property in Udham Singh Nagar to vested interests, offering a meagre Rs. 100 crore in corpus to the Sainik Kalyan Samiti, which looks after the welfare of ex-servicemen and war widows.
“The 1,000-acre farm, set up for ex- servicemen’s welfare after World War-II, earns Rs.5 crore a year, and the income is used for the welfare of ex-servicemen and their families. By trying to sell it off or allotting part of it to others like the forest-dwelling Van Gujjars, the government would seriously damage the cause of the ex-servicemen as the cost of the land is over Rs.1,000 crore,” Leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt said.
