The CPI (ML) Uttarakhand State committee has strongly condemned the Trivendra government’s move to convert State highways into District roads in the interest of the liquor mafia and said that this is a direct insult to the people’s mandate. Trivendra-led BJP Government in Uttarakhand clearly seems to be dedicated to working in the interest of the Mafia.
State Standing Committee Member Com Purushottam Sharma stated that soon after coming to power the Trivendra government has crossed all limits of decency by establishing close relations with the liquor mafia. He said that the government has not only stripped the State highways of their name and converted them into District roads, but also plans, at the behest of the Modi government, to send a proposal to the Centre for converting National highways into State highways so that they can also later be converted into District roads. He said that this is a cunning trick by BJP State governments to flout the Supreme Court directive that liquor shops should be removed from National and State highways. This is the same BJP government which had earlier protected liquor mafia baron and BJP Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya (after he refused to repay bank loans worth 9 thousand crores) and helped him to escape from the country and then took a stay order from the Supreme Court against the Uttarakhand High Court’s order for liquor ban in 3 districts in the State.
Com Sharma said that this decision is also a big conspiracy to save big businessmen who are BJP supporters and who have encroached upon the National and State highways. This is an attempt by the Trivendra government to kill two birds with one stone. Com Sharma alleged that the Congress and other ruling class parties are also, through their silent consent, standing by the Modi-Trivendra governments in their pro-mafia policy. He also expressed surprise that judges and courts who are so quick to take suo moto notice in other matters remain silent spectators in this matter. There can be no better example of the entire ruling machinery standing in solidarity to protect the interests of the mafia.
