Uttarakhand: Ex-CM Rawat slams plans to celebrate 3 years of BJP govt amid virus scare

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Thursday slammed the plans to celebrate three years of the BJP government in the state amid the coronavirus scare. Alleging that the state government was spending over Rs 10 crore on the celebrations, he said the money should have been spent on creating medical infrastructure needed to deal with the deadly virus.

"The prime minister advises avoiding crowds to fight coronavirus. People like me cancel Holi Milan programmes in response. But the state government has more courage. It plans to spend Rs 11-12 crore on the celebrations to mark the completion of three years in office," Rawat said in a Facebook post. "The information department is allocating funds to the district administrations concerned to facilitate the celebrations. MLAs have become heroes of the celebrations. I wonder whether it wouldn't have been more appropriate to spend the amount on raising medical infrastructure to grapple with the virus," he added.

Largescale celebrations are planned across the state to mark the occasion on March 18 with Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat naming around a dozen officials, including his media adviser, media coordinator, economic and IT advisers besides OSDs as conveners for the programmes to be held in districts of the state..