Investors’ meet was tug of war within BJP: Agnihotri

Our Correspondent

UNA, NOVEMBER 11

The local unit of the Congress organised a protest rally against the rising prices of essential commodities and unemployment here today. State Congress president Kuldip Rathore, Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, Una MLA Satpal Raizada, Naina Devi MLA Ram Lal Thakur, Nalagarh MLA Lakhvinder Rana, former minister Kuldip Kumar and former MLAs Rakesh Kaliaand and Virender Dharmani took part in the protest.

The protesters marched from the Circuit House to the main bus stand chowk, shouting slogans against the Union and state governments. The party leaders also addressed a gathering and blamed the government for pushing the state into a financial mess and its failure to get financial assistance from the Central Government.

Agnihotri, while addressing party workers, said that the recent investors meet at Dharamsala was a ‘tug of war’ between the factions owning allegiance to Union minister Anurag Thakur and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. He said that the struggle for power was visible as the Chief Minister did not actively involve Anurag Thakur in the meet. Anurag Thakur had said that the state government had not been able to solicit cooperation and assistance from the Union Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs in the meet.

Agnihotri said that the BJP had come to power in the state by promising an industrial package from the Central Government. However, the Prime Minister categorically said that “the days of special packages are over”.

He said, “If this is the case, why did the Central Government give special industrial packages to Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states”.

He said that the level of interest among the invitees to invest in the state was low. When Anurag Thakur asked the gathering as to who were interested in investing Rs 1,000 crore, no body responded in affirmation. Thakur gradually scaled down the amount and finally one company came forward with a proposal of Rs 10 crore investment. Organising an investors meet without giving any industrial package was meaningless, he added.

HPCC president Kuldip Rathore and MLA Ram Lal Thakur also criticised the state government for its failure to generate employment. Ram Lal said that the state government had recently hiked VAT on diesel and petrol. Soon, it would be in a 10,000-crore debt.