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BJP walks out over staff strike issue

DEHRA DUN, JULY 22 . Accusing the Uttaranchal government of indifference towards the demands of striking employees of the state secretariat, the BJP today staged a walk-out from the Assembly.

Taking up the issue under adjournment motion during zero hour, Kashi Singh Airy (Uttarakhand Kranti Dal) said the Chief Minister, N.D. Tiwari, had a few months ago announced that all demands of its employees regarding their sitting arrangement, renaming of posts and allotment of government houses would soon be sorted out but no action has been taken forcing them to strike.

Supporting the issue, leader of the opposition Matbar Singh Kandari (BJP) alleged bureaucracy is ``ruling the roost'' and even the Chief Minister has ``no say'' in certain matters.

Replying to the motion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Indira Hridayesh, said the government was sincere about the demands of employees of state secretariat and government order regarding the renaming of posts would be issued before the coming Monday.

She said the order for the proper sitting arrangement of employees has already been released while rules and regulation regarding the government house allotment for them have already got Cabinet approval.

Dissatisfied with the reply, the BJP members staged a walk out.

The Secretariat employees are on strike since yesterday.

Meanwhile, members cutting across party lines today demanded an independent inquiry into the construction of the MLA hostel at Dehra Dun.

Raising the issue during zero hour, Bipin Tripathi (UKD) said it was a matter of great concern that despite strong objection from the very beginning by members in the task force committee over the hostel issue, the objections were overruled and the construction took place.

He said no tenders were invited for the construction of the hostel and the project was given to U.P. Jal Nigam and another organisation of Uttar Pradesh at a hefty centrage fees of 12 per cent. This forced the Uttaranchal Government to shell out around Rs 1 crore to the UP Government and had it been done by the open tender policy, the State Government could have saved another Rs 1 crore apart from the fees.

Mr Ajay Bhatt of the BJP said, ``the quality of the building is very poor'' and there is seepage from various places. He also demanded an inquiry into the entire issue. Minister for Public Works Department Indira Hridesh said the Government had obtained a number of quality certification from various agencies for this building and every one of them has given a clean chit so far as the quality of construction was concerned. This included IIT Roorkee and from the Government's PWD.

Mr Prakash Pant also demanded an independent inquiry into the entire issue.

PTI & UNI

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