Thakur: Criticising budget Cong compulsion

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 16

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today took Opposition Congress to task on the issue of wasteful expenditure and revealed that 169 educational institutions were opened by the previous regime with financial approval in case of mere 18 just before the Assembly polls.

Replying to the four-day debate on the budget proposals presented by him in the Vidhan Sabha on March 9, Thakur said that the Congress, which did not take any steps for resource mobilization, was today giving sermons on the issue. “The Congress had constituted a Cabinet sub-committee on Resource Mobilization in August 2014 whose report was never submitted to the Cabinet”, he remarked. He added that several Congress MLAs had also appreciated the budget but it is their political compulsion to criticize the budget.

The Chief Minister said the Congress was today talking of cutting down wasteful expenditure but they forget that a whopping amount of Rs 75 lakh was spent for ferrying people in state transport buses for Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Mandi on October 12, 2017.

He said the budget, especially 28 new schemes like construction of community halls, Rs 1,500 kit to newborns, complete LPG coverage and opening of model schools, had been lauded by everyone. “The manner in which the budget has been appreciated, I can say with confidence that it has vision, newness and is forward looking,” he remarked.

“It appears that either the opposition has not read or does not want to read it as we have no intentions of stopping the unemployment allowance as budgetary provision of Rs 40 crore has been made in contrast to the Rs 10 crore spent by them,” he stated. He said rather he had announced two new schemes for encouraging youth in the 18 - 35 age group to set up their own ventures.

He said contrary to claims of CLP leader that Rs 2,220 crore loan had been raised by his government, only Rs 1,124 crore had been taken. “Technically we can say that we have raised loans of merely Rs 86 crore as during this period we have also repaid Rs 1,038 as payment towards the earlier loans raised by you,” he said. He also pointed out that it was due to the wrong excise policy that there was decline in revenue from sale of liquor.

Thakur said there was 18.6 per cent drop in the number of students in schools in the last five years which was a major cause of worry. “The need of the hour is to have quality and not quantity even if this amounts to completely stopping opening new schools,” he remarked.