Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Rohit Thakur and Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh today accused the state BJP leaders of obstructing financial aid to Himachal Pradesh by misguiding the Centre about actual borrowings they did during their time.
The ministers asked the BJP leaders to contribute constructively to the state's development as part of their opposition duties. They said the BJP leaders are instead playing a negative role to hamper the state finances.
“Last year, the state government submitted a claim of Rs 10,000 crore for disaster relief, but instead of pushing the same with the centre, the BJP leaders played a cheap role in halting the aid from the Centre. They created hurdles for the release of the funds, which were to be provided to the state for mitigating disaster that ravaged the state during the last monsoon,” they said.
The ministers said that funds to the tune of Rs 9200 crore of NPS (New Pension Scheme) were still lying with the Central government.
The duo suggested Jai Ram Thakur and other BJP leaders assist the state government in retrieving the stuck-up amount of NPS from the Union government.
They said that the BJP didn’t even pay benefits of more than Rs. 10,000 crore to the employees in the form of arrears and Dearness Allowance, burdening the present government to pay the same. The present Congress government has provided a 7% Dearness Allowance to employees, considering their interests, and is releasing full arrears of over 28,000 pensioners above 75 years of age this year.
The minister said the previous BJP government only released Rs 50,000 as the first instalment of arrears. The ministers assured that the Congress government will revive the state's economy within a year and provide pending benefits to government employees.
They said the Congress government had secured the future of retired employees by restoring the Old Pension Scheme for 1.36 lakh employees, unlike the Leader of Opposition, who challenged the employees to contest 'elections for pension'. The ministers criticised the Central Government for imposing restrictions on Himachal Pradesh, including reducing the loan limit to Rs 6600 crore, resulting in a loss of Rs 1200 crore to the state. Additionally, the loan limit for externally aided projects has been fixed at Rs 2900 crore for three years, and GST compensation has been stopped, they alleged.
They also alleged that the 15th Finance Commission had done injustice to the state by reducing the revenue deficit grant from Rs 10,249 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 3,257 crore in 2025-26, resulting in a loss of approximately Rs 7,000 crore for development.
The ministers pointed to the alleged scam in the HIMCARE scheme, wherein they said Rs 1000 crore were released without basis or rules during the previous BJP government's tenure, including Rs 450 crore given to private hospitals. They assured that the Congress government would investigate this scam and bring the culprits to book.
Taking strong objection to Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur’s statement on the Congress government spending money on the repair of houses, the ministers said the maintenance and repair of government properties, including minister's bungalows, was a routine process. Funds were also allocated for the repair of Jai Ram Thakur's government bungalow during his tenure.
They mocked at BJP's audacity in accusing Congress of reckless spending, adding that ‘that the BJP should look into its history of lavish, wasteful expenditures, indulging in luxury while ignoring the real needs of the people.’
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