Uttarakhand government is hit with a huge bill of Rs 2,130,000,000, Air Force comes into action after 24 years, now all departments are in tension!
The Indian Air Force has written a letter to the Uttarakhand government asking it to return its 213 crore rupees dues. In this letter sent to the Chief Secretary, details of 91 bills pending since the year 2000 have been given. The state of arrears of the state government is such that on the day of the formation of the state, it owed the Air Force 15 lakhs. Till now, letters have been sent several times, but no action has been taken. But now the matter has heated up. Let’s know the complete details…
In fact, in Uttarakhand, which is sensitive from the point of view of natural disasters, hardly a year has passed in the last 24 years, when the help of Air Force helicopters has not been taken for relief and rescue operations. You can guess this from the fact that among the bills of outstanding amount sent by the Air Force, two bills of fifteen lakhs are of November 9, 2000.. that is, the day the state of Uttarakhand was formed, the debt of 15 lakhs was incurred on the same day.
Apart from this, 12 bills worth Rs 52 crore 60 lakh are from the disaster of 2013. Bills worth Rs 3 crore 20 lakh belong to the Forest Department. The Forest Department had taken the help of Air Force helicopters to extinguish forest fires in 2021 and 2024. In the past years, the Air Force kept sending reminders to the state government from time to time, but they were not paid attention to. As a result, the Air Force’s debt has now reached more than Rs 213 crore.
Secretary (Disaster Management) Vinod Kumar Suman says that all the bills are being verified. A meeting of all the departments is also being called soon in this regard, so that the accounts of the bills can be cleared. This is also a complicated matter, because the bills are 24 years old.
However, he says that the Disaster Management Department owed the Air Force Rs 67 lakh, out of which Rs 24 lakh has been given to the Air Force. The Disaster Management Department will also give the remaining amount to the Air Force soon.
Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal says that this is a huge amount. We are also looking for a way to talk to the Center, so that this huge liability can be waived off.
It is not that these bills were not sent by the Air Force before. This year too, the Air Force Headquarters had reminded the state government of the liabilities by sending letters on 27 August, 18 September, 19 September, but no attention was paid to it at the government level. Now on 22 October, when a detailed letter was sent by Air Vice Marshal Vikram Guru, Joint Secretary to the Government of India, then the machinery came into action.
