Shimla

Police does party work: Congress
JAWALAMUKHI, Dec 9 — BJP's collection for the Orissa cyclone fund by the local police has drawn flak from the local unit of the Congress. The local police maintains that it was simply complying with the orders of the local MLA and IPH Minister, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary. The minister has denied having issued such directions.

Cong walkout over remarks on Orissa
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 9 — The winter session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly began on a lively note with the opposition Congress staging a walkout in protest against certain critical references by the ruling party members on the functioning of the Orissa Government.

The trouble arose when Mr Mohinder Singh, the Public Works Minister, while speaking on the government resolution urging people to contribute liberally to help the cyclone-hit people of Orissa, said that calamity was a retribution for the 'sin' committed by its Chief Minister, Mr Girdhar Gamang, by voting in Parliament to bring down the Vajpayee government. He said that his act forced a mid-term poll, putting a burden of Rs 12,000 crore on the exchequer.

This enraged the Congress members, who, led by Mr Ram Lal, were on their legs protesting against the reference to the Orissa Chief Minister. Mrs Asha Kumari wanted to raise a point of order which was not allowed. At this, angry exchanges between the Treasury Benches and the Opposition ensued. Nothing could be heard in the din, Order was restored when the Congress members walked out of the House.

Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, condemned the walkout and said there was no occasion to indulge in such an act while the House was discussing a serious issue like the devastation caused by the super cyclone. He said the Congress members had been critical of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Centre for not declaring it a national calamity, but when the ruling party made references to the political crisis in Orissa, they walked out in protest.

He alleged that the leadership crisis in Orissa, which lasted for more than a fortnight, gave a setback to relief and rehabilitation efforts. The entire country and international community had come out in support of the affected people, but the political instability in the state sent wrong signals. Besides the Chief Relief Commissioner of the state was also shifted.

Mr Dhumal assured the House that the government would extend all possible help to the victims, rising above party lines on humanitarian grounds.

Later, talking to newsmen, Mr Ram Lal said his party walked out in protest against the attempts of the ruling combine to give 'political colour' to the debate on a natural calamity involving human lives. The Himachal legislature was not competent to discuss the performance of the Orissa Government and the BJP-HVC combine had tried to make 'political capital' out of human tragedy.

He said his party was not against the resolution and no Congress member criticised the Prime Minister during the debate.

Earlier, participating in the debate, Mr Kaul Singh (Congress) lauded the effort of the Orissa Government in organisation relief operations in the wake of the 'worst calamity of the century'. He said although the Centre had provided an assistance of Rs 500 crore, it had not declared it a national calamity.

Mr Jai Krishan (BJP) said that even though the Congress had been repeatedly making the charge of saffronisation against the government, it was the RSS which was rendering an invaluable service to the cyclone victims of Orissa.

The 'bungling' in distribution of relief was a matter of concern.

Mr Rangila Ram Rao (Congress) commended the role of the Army and Air Force in carrying out prompt relief operations and saving numerous lives.

The resolution was adopted by the House in absence of Congress members.

The House also paid tributes to Hargobind Singh, Hira Singh Pal, Satya Dev Bushairi and Laxmi Dut Vaidya, four former members of the assembly who died recently. The House also expressed sorrow over the huge loss of live and property caused by the super cyclone in Orissa.

Dhumal presents White Paper
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 9 — Himachal Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, today stressed the need for initiating some economic reforms to overcome the current crisis in Himachal and also indicated that the state government might raise more loans to cover the resource gap during the current year.

Mr Dhumal, who was presenting a “white paper” on the financial position of the state in the Vidhan Sabha on the opening of the winter session today, made it clear that efforts would be made for a special financial package from the Centre or a multi-lateral agency like the World Bank for meeting the financial crisis.

Mr Dhumal said that the “White paper” which covers the period between 1981 to 2000, was not an attempt to run down the performance of the previous governments on the financial front or to criticise in any manner the ways and means of managing the financial situation by these governments. The paper attempts to analyse what went wrong. It is not the aim to politicise the issue in any manner since the paper contains factual information on the financial situation of the state.

He expressed grave concern over future projections which indicated that even without taking on any fresh revenue expenditure commitments, normal growth on the current levels was likely to result in revenue deficits increasing sharply in the coming years. Raising debt to fill these gaps may prove unsustainable in view of the level of debt already contracted by the state government and the visible lack of capacity to service and repay more borrowings.

Since 1994-95 the state government has entered the most difficult period of its financial history.

Mr Dhumal said that the review of the state’s finances over an almost two decade’s period revealed a disturbing picture. Our own revenue raising efforts have been below potential and the central revenue transfers have been slipping even as our revenue expenditure has been galloping.

The signs of fiscal stress became evident a decade ago when a revenue deficit situation occurred for the first time and became a chronic condition thereafter. After a period of attempting some restraint on revenue expenditure in the early 1990s, the state did a turnaround in 1994-95. The government embarked on a course that saw revenue expenditure growth rates reach the highest levels in its history and besides increased levels of direct government borrowings, it began a process of raising debt through the public sector undertakings (PSUs) to meet these expenditure commitments.

The Chief Minister said that during the current year, till now Rs 250 crore and Rs 200 crore of loans had been raised through the state electricity board and the Forest Corporation respectively for the use by the state government. The annual interest rates of these loans are 13.6 per cent and 13.8 per cent respectively. The arranger fee for raising these loans was 0.075 per cent and 0.35 per cent respectively. The total cost incurred in raising these Rs 450 crore was Rs 61 lakh.

The Chief Minister said that the total amount of loan raised by the previous government during the period 1994-95 to 1997-98 was Rs 453.46 crore through the HPSEB and Rs 459.63 crore through the Forest Corporation. The weighted average interest cost of these amounts was 16.62 per cent in the case of HPSEB and 15.93 per cent for HPSFC. The total amount paid as charges and incentives for raising these funds came to Rs 13.69 crore.

Mr Dhumal said that Revenue expenditure had steeply increased over the years. The expenditure on salaries, which was Rs 546.53 crore in 1993-94, increased to Rs 1338.14 crore in 1998-99, the expenditure on maintenance which was Rs 91.83 crore in 1993-94, is expected to increase to Rs 457.17 crore during 1999-2000.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement, Mr Virbhadra Singh told reporters outside the House that the Dhumal government had led the state to an unprecedented financial crisis due to fiscal mismanagement and wasteful expenditure. Mr Dhumal has, so far, failed to get any financial package for the state, he alleged.

Mr Virbhandra Singh alleged that Mr Dhumal was desperately trying to escape from the grim financial crisis and put the entire blame on the previous Congress government.

Police does party work: Congress
From Our Correspondence

JAWALAMUKHI, Dec 9 — BJP's collection for the Orissa cyclone fund by the local police has drawn flak from the local unit of the Congress. The local police maintains that it was simply complying with the orders of the local MLA and IPH Minister, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary. The minister has denied having issued such directions.

The local police issues receipts bearing serial number 2100 to donors whose names are not mentioned on the receipts. The Block Congress President, Mr Inder Mohan Walia, has demanded a high-level inquiry into the issue.

Meanwhile, the State BJP President, Mr Suresh Chander in a clarification over the phone that no such instructions had been given to the police in this connection. He went on to assure that the matter was being looked into.