Centre not releasing SC scholarship funds: Rawat

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 9

Chief Minister Harish Rawat today said the state had received just Rs 75 crore out of Rs 160 crore allotted to the state under Scheduled Castes Matric Scholarship Scheme, which was totally a Centrally sponsored scheme.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat, while addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, said the Centre was not providing even the allotted funds to the state. This, despite the fact that the state had provided all previousfund utilisation certificates on time.

“Even Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma has acknowledged the fact that Uttarakhand is far better than other states when it comes to providing funds utilisation certificates to the Centre,” Rawat claimed.

He said Rs 1,751 crore was demanded under Special Plan Assistance and Food Subsidies but so far the Centre has only released Rs 731 crore to Uttarakhand. Mahesh Sharma, whom he met while in Delhi, had accepted including Lakhamandal and Saattaal in the Mahabharata tourism circuit being developed by the Tourism Ministry, Rawat said.

Referring to demonetisation, the Chief Minister said since November 8, the day demonetisation came into implementation, 108 land purchase transactions above the value of Rs 50 lakh had taken place in the state, out of which 72 transactions were from Dehradun.

“We have ordered a probe into all these deals so as to ensure whether these deals were genuine or not,” he said.

Rawat also disclosed that there had been a fall of 32 per cent in the registry of properties in the state, which had led to a 35 per cent fall of revenue for the government. Similarly, revenue through mining had decreased by 21 per cent.

The Chief Minister said his government was working to find out some solution to address the demands of guest teachers. Efforts were being undertaken in this direction.

Also, honorarium of Uttarkhand Poorva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited had been increased some time ago. None of the Nigam employees would be made to leave job under any circumstances in the near future, he added.