Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat takes save democracy yatra to Haridwar

Dehradun: Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Monday staged a padyatra in Haridwar accusing BJP of "murdering" democracy and asked people to teach a befitting lesson to the party for "destabilising" an elected government and "derailing" the state's development.

Accompanied by PCC President Kishore Upadhyay and a crowd of supporters, Rawat paid obeisance at?the Daksha temple in Kankhal near Haridwar and traversed a distance of six km on foot from the ancient temple to Har Ki Pairi to mobilise public opinion against the manner in which his elected government was dislodged in the state.

Rawat also accused the BJP of trying to drive a wedge between Congress and PDF MLAs but asserted that they stood united like a rock.

Rawat who also held rallies at Tharali, Narayanbagad, Karnaprayag and Gopeshwar in Chamoli district yesterday as part of the second phase of his save democracy yatra asked people to teach a befitting lesson to the BJP accusing it of hatching a conspiracy to topple an elected government, creating political instability in the state and derailing its development.

Rawat said though he had no idea when the clouds of political uncertainty will lift from Uttarakhand, the assembly elections were not far away and people had a chance to teach a lesson to those guilty of derailing the state's development.

Assembly elections in Uttarakhand are due early next year.

Rawat also highlighted the decisions taken by him in "public interest" at the two Cabinet meetings he chaired during the brief revival of his government recently in the wake of the High Court's verdict revoking President rule in the state on which a stay was put by the Supreme Court just a day later.

Though their implementation will depend largely on what the Supreme Court rules on April 27, Rawat took nearly a dozen populist decisions at the two cabinet meetings with an eye on assembly polls including reappointment of guest teachers and hiking their salary to 15000 per month, setting up a committee to look into reduction of land circle rates, a pension of Rs 3100 for identified statehood agitationists, an increase of Rs 200 in the pensions of widows, old women and the handicapped.

This is the second phase of Rawat's save democracy yatra which covered constituencies of rebel MLAs in its first phase.