Khanduri targets Sonia visit

Uttarakhand CM criticises Sonia's visit saying it is a gross violation of constitutional norms.

Criticising the planned visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi for laying the foundation stone of the Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail project at Gauchar in Chamoli district on November 9,Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri on Monday said it was a gross violation of constitutional norms.

The Rs 4,200-crore project,expected to be completed in five years,would finally connect the backward Garhwal region with the rest of the country. Consequently,the arduous eight-hour road journey between Rishikesh and Karanprayag will be reduced to just four hours.

In which capacity is she going to lay the foundation stone?, Khanduri said to The Indian Express. The state government, according to him,has been kept in the dark about the function. It is shameful,till now,I dont have any official communication from the Centre about the function,leave aside being invited to it, Khanduri said. It is not a Congress project, he said,insisting that the Centre ought to have taken the Uttarakhand government on board.

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He recalled that as a Central minister,he always ensured that whenever a Central project had to be launched,the CM of the state concerned,irrespective of his party affiliation,would be called upon to preside.

Ideally, he felt,the Railway Ministry should have invited the Prime Minister to do the honours. The invite to Sonia Gandhi,he alleged,was politically-motivated,designed to claim credit for the project on the eve of Assembly elections in Uttarakhand.