BJP's claims of giving more funds to Uttarakhand a myth, says Harish Rawat

DEHRADUN: Chief Minister Harish Rawat today rubbished BJP's claims that more funds were allocated by the Centre to Uttarakhand and said the state suffered a loss of over Rs 1,000 crore during the current fiscal due to the 14th Finance Commission recommendations.

"The change in funding pattern for Uttarakhand as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission had caused a loss of Rs 1,405 crore to Uttarakhand during 2015-16 in comparison to what it had received during the previous financial year," he said here.

Rawat termed as "myth" the claims by BJP of allocating more funds to the state by the Narendra Modi government.

He claimed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a letter about Uttarakhand getting Rs 1,405 crore less than what it had got in 2014-15.

"Jaitley's letter (on March 17) proves that BJP has been telling a lie to mislead people about us," he said.

The state government has been undertaking reconstruction in disaster-affected areas and other development works in all constituencies from its own meagre resources after not receiving financial support from the Centre, he claimed.

Rubbishing allegations of rebel Congress MLAs that development work in their constituencies were being neglected because of the Chief Minister's discriminatory approach, Rawat said Rs 8,030 crore was spent in constituencies held by rebel legislators despite a substantial shortfall in central aides.

"Was it possible if I was discriminatory in my approach?" he asked.