Shah's allegation of govt not utilising central funds misleading: CM

DEHRADUN: Hours after BJP national president Amit Shah on Sunday accused the Congress-led state government of not properly utilising the funds released by the Centre under different centrally-sponsored schemes while flagging off BJP's Parivartan Rath Yatra in Dehradun, chief minister Harish Rawat strongly rebutted the allegation as 'misleading'.
Addressing a press conference at the Beejapur house here on Sunday, Rawat said that being a top BJP leader, Amit Shah does not seem to be aware of the total amount of funds released by the Narendra Modi government to Uttarakhand."If Shah ji is not aware of the amount of funds released to the state by the central government, he is not expected to issue misleading statements in public meetings," said Rawat.
Giving details of the figures on different counts, Rawat clarified that the Centre's decision to implement the 14th finance commission had brought down the central government's financial assistance for Uttarakhand by Rs 1,700 crore. Rawat said that the Centre also released Rs 200 crore less on the tax share front as compared to other states.
The chief minister made it clear that even Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had admitted during his recent visit to Uttarakhand that the state was given Rs 200 crore less tax share than other states.
While Rawat declined to comment on the poor turnout at BJP's Parivartan Rath Yatra, which was flagged off by Amit Shah for Garhwal and Kumaon regions, the CM's media adviser, Surendra Aggarwal, termed the BJP rally a 'flop show'. What has come as a big surprise is that even Amit Shah failed to attract a large crowd. "A small crowd attended the BJP yatra to listen to Shah. This clearly shows the lack of interest among the people to listen to top BJP leaders," said Aggarwal.
Aggarwal said that more people would have attended the BJP rally had Shah promised to "give change for the demonetised notes at the meet."
Giving details of proposals to be taken up at the state cabinet meeting on Monday, ahead of the two-day assembly session at Gairsain in Chamoli district, the CM said that the meeting is likely to discuss the proposal to carve out new sub-block headquarters from major blocks for better governance.
Currently, there are 95 blocks in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions. "Though we will be able to finalise the proposal on carving out new blocks from the bigger ones after obtaining the central government's nod, we will be discussing the matter in Monday's meeting, as demand for carving out more districts from the current 13 is older than the demand for carving out new blocks," said Rawat.