Uttarakhand polls: Congress govts looted, dragged development projects and forced migration, says Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the previous Uttarakhand government of looting the state and dragging development projects for years.

"Several generations of people in Uttarakhand villages were forced to leave their homes in the absence of roads and other facilities and migrate," Modi said while addressing a rally in Haldwani on Thursday.

Modi said Uttarakhand has completed 20 years of its formation. "In these years, you have seen people running the government who used to say, 'you may loot Uttarakhand, but save my government'. These people looted Uttarakhand with both hands," Modi said. He was indirectly targeting former CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat.


Ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 23 projects worth over '17,500 crore at a function in Haldwani of Kumaon region.

One of these was the Lakhwar Multipurpose project which was first conceived in 1976 and remaining pending for several years. Referring to this project, Modi said delays in implementing government schemes have been a permanent trademark of those who were in the government before. "The project was first thought of in 1976. Today, after 46 years, our government has laid the foundation stone for its work," Modi told the gathering.

He said there were two approaches -- one to keep the hills deprived of development and the other to work day and night for its development.

Reiterating his statement that this decade belongs to Uttarakhand, Modi highlighted the ongoing infrastructure projects, including the Chardham road and the new rail routes being built. He also referred to the strides made by Uttarakhand in the fields of hydro power, industry and tourism.

He also laid the foundation stone for the Rishikesh-based AIIMS' satellite centre at Udham Singh Nagar and Jagjivan Ram government college at Pithoragarh.