Dhumal exposes ‘poor financial health of state’

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 14

Taking on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for his the Budget proposals, Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal today accused the government of plunging the future of the state into dark due to fiscal mismanagement and misleading the jobless youth by making false promise of allowance.

Initiating the debate on the 2017-18 proposals, presented by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the Assembly on March 10, Dhumal said the only achievement was the record created by the CM by making a four-and-a-half-hour speech.

“Despite the repeated warnings by the Centre, you raised loans of Rs 5,000 crore, crossing the permissible limit and the revenue deficit rose from Rs 476 crore to Rs 1,041 crore and the fiscal deficit from Rs 4,076 crore to Rs 4,946 crore,” he said, presenting a grim picture about the financial health of the state. He said during 2013 to 2017, the state raised excess loans of Rs 1,563 crore, Rs 1,414 crore, Rs 128 crore and Rs 535 crore.

He said despite there being a Resource Mobilisation Committee, no effort had been made to generate resources. “Rather the state exchequer is under severe burden as 45 chairmen and vice-chairmen of boards and corporations have been made whose only task is to issue press statements prepared by the Public Relation Department against us,” he said.

He said the CM had again played a cruel joke on the youth and tried to hoodwink them by making a budgetary provision of Rs 150 crore for unemployment allowance. “Though the number of the unemployed youth has crossed 12 lakh, going by the registration in employment exchanges at 8.24 lakh, a sum of Rs 82.40 crore will be required every month and Rs 988 crore for one year.

He said the CM was doing great disservice to the state by opening schools, colleges, ITIs and other institutions without making provisions of infrastructure and staff.

Comparing the last four Budgets with the 2017-18 Budget proposals, he said the promises of bringing more departments under the Service Guarantee Bill, setting up a state commission for grievances, reorganisation of administrative units, go-sadans in every panchayat, setting up of market yards, vegetable pack houses, CA stores, Apple Rejuvenation Project, apple concentrate unit, mobile fish market and fodder plant remained only on paper.

“It is for this reason that I say that this is a government of mere announcements, which is crying hoarse about the adverse impact of demonetisation even as its own growth rate has declined from 8.1 to 6.8 per cent,” he said.