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ibune News Service
Dehradun, December 19
With all political parties of Uttarakhand lending support to the protest planned tomorrow in New Delhi against the declaration of Bhagirathi watershed area extending from Gangotri to Uttarkashi as eco sensitive zones, the Uttarakhand BJP today upped the ante against the Congress by saying that such a situation would not have arisen if the Congress government in the state had been vigilant by seeking views of the people prior to the declaration of the zones by the UPA government.
“The people of the area are dead opposed to the declaration of the zone, as it is feared that it would impede development. Usually prior to the declaration, the opinion of the affected people is sought, but the Congress government in the state kept sleeping and did not conduct a survey, leaving the authorities to assume that the people were agreeable to the plan,” said Bhatt at a press conference today. Bhatt said that he had written to the Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar to re-think on the issue and was optimistic that the decision would be favourable. As the final notification is still pending, I have written a letter in my personal capacity to the minister to re-examine the issue as development in around 88 villages would be affected,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister for adopting double standards, Bhatt said that for 10 years the chief minister was a minister in the UPA government but he never took up state specific issues. “Now all of a sudden, with BJP government in power at the Centre, the chief minister has woken up to the injustices being meted out to the state on the issue of green bonus and industrial package and organised a protest at Jantar Mantar on these issues,” charged Bhatt.