Harish Rawat promises to provide all facilities

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, January 31

Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s decision to contest the Assembly elections from Kiccha in Udham Singh Nagar district has brought the constituency into limelight. Kiccha is one of the most backward constituencies with regard to education, health and employment facilities. Harish Rawat will take on sitting BJP legislator Rajesh Shukla.

Shukla had defeated Sarwar Yar Khan of the Congress by over 8,000 votes in the 2012 Assembly elections. He polled 33,388 votes while Khan secured 25,162 votes.

Besides Kiccha, Harish Rawat is also contesting from the Haridwar rural seat.

“There are 30,000 Muslims of total 1.18 lakh voters in the Kiccha Assembly constituency,” says Mayank Tyagi, a journalist based at Kiccha.

“Kiccha can be defined as mini-India as people from all parts of the country are present here. There are people from hills, Bengal, eastern parts of the country, western Uttar Pradesh settlers, Punjabis and Sikhs,” says Tyagi.

Besides Harish Rawat and Shukla, six other candidates are also in the fray, including former Congress spokesperson Shilpi Arora. Shilpi jumped into the fray after the Congress denied her ticket from Gadarpur. She feels cheated by the Chief Minister for not giving her ticket from Gadarpur even though she had served the party for over 12 years.

Rajesh Pratap Singh (BSP), Sanjay Singh (SP), Sanjay Grower (UKD) and another Independent candidate Jaleesh Ahmed are also in the fray.

“Though Kiccha had been a subdivision since 1925 during the British rule, it has no degree college or a polytechnic college. As a result, local youths do not get jobs in the nearby SIDCUL or elsewhere,” says Tyagi

The constituency lacks good health services and patients are referred to hospitals at other places. “If the land available in the Khurpia farm is used for developing a model city, Kiccha could become one of prosperous cities of the state,” claims Tyagi.

The Chief Minister has promised to make Kiccha a model constituency by developing all facilities. “The Congress has plans to use the land in the Khurpia farm and make Kiccha developed and prosperous,” said Rawat at a public meeting at Kiccha last week.

Shukla says the Chief Minister had made over 19 promises in Kiccha in the last 30 months of his tenure but implemented none as he (MLA) belongs to the opposition party BJP. “Harish Rawat has no right to fight the elections from the Assembly constituency as he has not fulfilled no promise made to the people of Kiccha,” says Shukla.

He adds that he has done remarkable works in his five years as MLA. “My main achievement is a bridge built on the Gaula river to link villages situated along it at a cost of Rs 7 crore. I have got roads costing Rs 100 crore constructed in villages in my constituency and upgraded five high schools to intermediate colleges,” claims Shukla.

He says had the Chief Minister given money generously to the constituency, the 30-bedded hospital could have been upgraded to a 100-bedded hospital and a polytechnic college and a degree college could have been opened. But despite repeated assurances nothing has been done. “The man who has opposed development of Kiccha is now promising people everything. That is ironic,” says Shukla.