Congress: Protests work of anti-development forces

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, February 10

Congress MLAs have termed the protest against the Nainisar land allotment as the work of anti-development forces. The Nainisar Bachao Sangharsh Samiti has announced to hold a statewide bandh on February 29.

The Congress leaders today defended the government move to allot land to a private corporate group for school construction at Nainisar in Almora district. They claimed that it was an initiative to revitalise barren land in the hill region by making it a hub of development. Besides, it would also generate employment opportunities for villagers in the surrounding areas, they said.

The activists have been protesting the allotment of land to a private group near Nainisar village for the construction of a school.

Manoj Tiwari, Congress MLA from Almora, said, “The state government wants to provide better education facility to villagers through a school of international repute at Nainisar where over 10 per cent seats will be reserved for children of local residents at half the amount of fee while 20 per cent of the seats will be reserved for state government employees.”

Karan Mahara, former Ranikhet MLA, who is also a close relative of Chief Minister Harish Rawat, said it was an initiative to re-habitat hill villages which had been abandoned due to inadequate means. “If anti-development forces continue to oppose the school construction, why would any industrialist come to invest in hill areas?” he asks.

State Congress general secretary Khajan Pandey said in Haldwani that people, who were opposing the Nainisar land allotment, were doing so only for the sake of protest. They had always opposed every positive move of successive state governments. “The opening of an international school at Nainisar will open employment avenues for the locals,” Pandey added.