Sarita Arya keen to work for farmers

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, January 21

The Nainital Assembly constituency (SC) represented by Sarita Arya of the Congress was not only bifurcated but also reserved in the delimitation exercise before the 2012 Assembly elections.

Sarita Arya had won the 2012 Assembly elections by over 6,000 votes. She had polled 25,563 votes and defeated Hem Chandra Arya of the BJP who polled 19,255 votes. The Assembly segment as a general category seat before 2012 elections was represented by the BJP and the UKD in the 2007 and 2002 elections, respectively.

Sarita Arya, who is likely to get the Congress ticket this time, will face BJP’s Sanjeev Arya, whom the BJP has fielded from the constituency. Sanjeev along with father Yashpal Arya joined the BJP last week.

“Sanjeev is new to the town and has no association with people here. He is dependent on the BJP wave as party cadre votes may help him win the elections,” says Ravi Pandey, a journalist in Nainital.

The candidates of the UKD and the BSP, besides a few formidable Independent candidates are likely to contest the elections from Nainital. Prominent among the Independent candidates will be Hem Arya, who enjoys good political influence in the town and its nearby villages. He had left the BJP after he was denied ticket.

“Hem Arya will divide BJP votes, thus helping Sarita Arya,” says Mahesh Joshi, a local resident.

Sarita Arya says she has fulfilled nearly all her promises made to voters of the constituency in the last elections. “I have fulfilled the promises of opening a degree college, cut in LPG prices and a Rajiv Navodaya Vidyalaya at Betalghat. I got many roads constructed, tried to address problems of electricity and drinking water in Kotabagh village. An ITI was opened at the remote San village Pareva in Kotabagh area,” says Sarita.

She claims to have got several schools upgraded in the Ukhaldhunga block. “With the blessing of Chief Minister Harish Rawat, I have also worked for tourist town of Nainital and got huge funds sanctioned for the construction of a drainage in the town,” she says.

The Congress MLA says she has also got sanctioned a parking space at Narayan Nagar in Nainital and a project to beautify Gandhi Gram at Takula where Mahatma Gandhi stayed in 1929. “If elected again, I will work for farmers in the district to help them transport their produce to market and construct a stable for horses in Nainital,” she added.

But people have complaints. They say despite her efforts to get facilities in Nainital, not many of her works could become reality. “There is an anti-incumbency wave against her as her projects could not be realised in her five-year tenure,” says Pramod Nainwal, a resident of Nainital.