CM Dhami completes 4 years in office; cites UCC, crackdown on paper-leak mafia as key achievements

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who completed four years in office on Thursday, said when he was appointed to the top office for the first time in 2021, he had no idea an ordinary worker like him would be entrusted with such a responsibility.

Dhami, who is the second chief minister after Narayan Dutt Tiwari in the state's 25-year history to complete four years in office, cited the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code, crackdown against the dominance of the paper-leak mafia in recruitment examinations, and the action against land encroachment and forced conversions as the most remarkable achievements of his ongoing tenure.

"I did not know an ordinary worker like me would be entrusted with a responsibility like this. My path was fraught with challenges. Elections were near. The Covid pandemic was at its peak. The Chardham Yatra and people in the tourism business had been hit hard. Bringing them back on track was a huge challenge," Dhami said in an interview to PTI Videos.

"We announced a package to resuscitate them. We made more than 700 announcements in six months. We hiked the amount of old age pension and the salary of anganwadi workers. We also gave a push to innovation by launching the apple and kiwi missions," he said.

Holding out introduction of the UCC as one of the biggest achievements of his tenure, Dhami said the BJP went to the people (in 2022 assembly polls) with the promise of bringing it if re-elected to power.

"UCC had always been part of our manifesto in successive elections. We had the fortune of becoming the first state in the country after Independence to introduce the law with the inspiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the constant guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah," he said.

Countering the opposition charge that it was meant to target a community, Dhami said it is meant for the security of people across all religions and faiths.

Citing the 2022 gruesome murder of Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner in Delhi, he said the provision for mandatory registration of live-in relationships in the UCC provides a cushion against such ugly eventualities.

The chief minister said his government took effective action against the paper leak mafia by introducing the country's toughest anti-copying law and putting more than 100 people involved in such scams behind bars.

Ever since the law was introduced in Uttarakhand, 24,000 deserving and meritorious candidates from poor family backgrounds have got government jobs in a fair and transparent manner, he said.

"It has boosted the morale of really deserving and meritorious students," he said. Dhami said his government is against "love-jihad, land jihad and spit jihad".

"Encroachment should not be allowed at any cost. Action against encroachment in the state has led to removal of encroachments from 6500 acres of government land," he said, adding that it was not meant against any community in particular.

The chief minister also spoke of 30 per cent reservation to domicile women of Uttarakhand in government jobs and 10 per cent horizontal reservation to statehood agitationists as major achievements of his government.

He said Rs 1,700 crore has been sanctioned by the Centre for the rebuilding of subsidence-hit Jyotirmath and thanked Prime Minister Modi for his constant guidance for the successful rescue of workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi.