Uttarakhand govt sitting idle on suicides by farmers: state Cong chief

Uttarakhand Congress chief Pritam Singh on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state has been sitting idle on the issue of farmer suicides, citing the suicide of a 32-year-old farmer from Ninital on May 8.

Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters here, Singh said: “Since the BJP came to power in 2017, at least nine farmers have committed suicide in the state and the government has neither provided relief nor taken addressed to the issues of farmers.”

“When confronted, both the state and the Centre say that they are working on doubling the income of farmers by 2022, which is just a farce and nothing more. By the time the BJP did anything about the addressing the farmers’ issues, it will be ousted from both the Centre and the state.”

Taking a dig at the TS Rawat-led BJP government on removing the name of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi from the newly built cricket stadium in Dehradun, Singh said: “The BJP government has changed the name of Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium to just International Cricket Stadium, Dehradun.”

“It shows the narrow-mindedness of the BJP and they have done no development in the state but are only indulging in the names of establishments set up during the Congress rule,” he said.

“The Congress will hold a huge protest against the despicable step taken by the state government.”