Himachal,Uttarakhand write to PM: Restore excise relief

Pokhriyal,who flew down Wednesday morning,held a meeting with Dhumal to draw a common strategy to get the Central excise exemptions restored for the two special category states,the withdrawal of which has triggered widespread resentment in the two states.

“We will wait for the Prime Minister’s response to the letter. This is first step we have taken together. We really want to know the reasons why the Centre has chosen to withdraw the benefits,which were granted by the NDA government for 10 years. It is totally unwarranted and unprecedented action of the Centre,which the two states will resist together,” Pokhriyal told a joint press conference with Dhumal here.

Both chief ministers did not rule out the possibility of meeting the PM along with BJP’s national leadership including L K Advani,Nitin Gadkari,Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in the next few days.

The Uttarakhand CM strongly contested Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma’s claim,made in Shimla last week,that the package has not been withdrawn. He said the minister’s claim was not based on facts,and was misleading.

“There have been widespread protests already in the state over denial of the package. The Assembly has passed a unanimous resolution,also backed by the Congress MLAs. I have met the Prime Minister twice,once with my Cabinet and all the five sitting Congress MPs including Union Minister Harish Rawat to seek extension of the package,” Pokhriyal said.

He asked the Congress leaders of Uttarakhand to resign from their posts as their own party was playing against vital interests of their state.

Dhumal said the actual demand was to restore the extension up to 2013,which was already granted in 2003,and later extend the package to 2020 on the lines of northeastern states,which are given 20 years’ benefits till 2017.