Tuesday, 08 November 2022 | PNS | JOSHIMATH
The Congress party started the Uttarakhand leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra from the Mana village located near the Indo- China border in the Chamoli district on Monday. Before starting the Yatra, the Congress leaders led by the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara, the Uttarakhand in-charge of Congress Devendra Yadav and leader of opposition (LoP) in Uttarakhand Assembly Yashpal Arya offered prayers at the Badrinath temple.
At Mana village the Congress workers unfurled the national flag and sang the national song to start the Yatra. Speaking on the occasion the PCC president Karan Mahara said that the former president of Congress party Rahul Gandhi has started a 3,507 kilometres long Bharat Jodo Yatra from September 8 from Kanyakumari which would pass through 12 States and two Union Territories. He has already covered 1,400 kilometres on foot in the five States. In the States which are not in the route of the Yatra of Rahul Gandhi, district wise Yatras are planned by the party. He said that national issues which are being raised by Rahul Gandhi would be taken up in the Yatra in the State. “We would take up the issue of unemployment, increasing the communal harmony which is affected by the politics of polarisation by the BJP during the Yatra. We will tell people that the Congress is in favour of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and that the OPS has been reinstated in two States ruled by the Congress party. The party has given a promise that it will implement OPS in all the States where it would come to power,’’ he said. The PCC president said that the Agniveer scheme and its detrimental effect on the State would be discussed during the Yatra and injustice done to the Ankita Bhandari would be highlighted. He said after her brutal murders efforts are being made to destroy evidences in the Ankita Bhandari murder case. The PCC president demanded removal of director general of police for laxity in the case. Mahara added that the party would take up the recruitment scams in the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC), in cooperative departments and backdoor appointments in Vidhan Sabha in the chaupals of villages during the Yatra.
