Cong vows to bring new land law, scrap Char Dham Board
HARISH RAWAT SAYS CONG WILL FORM A BODY TO RATE THE SCHEMES ON ‘HOW MUCH EMPLOYMENT THEY CREATED‘
DEHRADUN: Gearing up for the 2022 state assembly elections, the Congress in Uttarakhand on Thursday promised to implement proposed minimum income guarantee scheme or Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) scheme in the state, bring a new land law to restrict people from other states buying land in the state and scrap the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board Act if voted to power.
The announcement was made by former chief minister and Congress national general secretary Harish Rawat on the concluding day of the three-day brainstorming session of the party in Rishikesh to chalk out the strategy for the upcoming election. Rawat said that if the Congress wins the state elections next year, then it will “focus on employment generation including both government jobs and self-employment.”
“If voted to power, we will especially focus on employment generation. First of all, we will fill all the vacancies in government departments in the very first year apart from bringing various schemes or policies on job creation including self-employment,” said Rawat.
“Will also strengthen the existing Uttarakhand Public Service Commission and Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission which are involved in recruiting for various vacancies in government departments.
“After all, these, if anyone remains jobless, then he will be provided unemployment allowance under the proposed NYAY scheme which will be implemented in the very first year of our government,” he said.
Then Congress national president Rahul Gandhi had made an announcement to introduce NYAY scheme during the 2019 general election campaign under which he promised that if voted power, the Congress government will provide an amount of ₹6,000/month or ₹72,000 a year to 5 crore “poorest families” which have a monthly income of less than ₹12,000.
Rawat, who is the president of party’s election campaign committee, said the Congress will also form a body to rate the various schemes on “how much employment they created” in the state.
He said the Congress will also bring a new land law in the state to restrict people from other states from buying land in Uttarakhand. “The present BJP government has amended the existing land law of state to allow big industrialist, land mafias and property dealers to buy as much land as they can including agricultural land for non-agricultural industries,” he said.
“We will close this door after coming to power by bringing a land law putting a limit to people of other states buying land here to protect the land, forest, water and culture of Uttarakhand,” said Rawat.
He also announced that his party’s government will scrap the existing Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board Act which is “stepping on the ageold traditions of our highly revered Char Dham shrine.”
Party state in charge Devendra Yadav said, during the three-day session which witnessed the presence of senior leaders including party state president Ganesh Godiyal and leader of opposition Pritam Singh, “Contemplation was held on various suggestions given by the 10 committees formed for poll preparations.” “Those suggestions would again be discussed in the core committee meeting of party after some days to finalise the poll strategy.
“However, during the threeday brainstorming session, it was decided that we will raise the issues of every struggling section of society including youth, farmers and women of state,” said Yadav.
The BJP termed the Congress’ announcements as “day dreaming.”
“The Congress has been rejected by the people of state long back. It has lost all their trust. Their announcements are nothing but daydreaming because they are going to lose the upcoming polls badly,” said BJP state president Madan Kaushik.