Agnipath a flop, Congress will scrap scheme: Alka Lamba

Una, SEPTEMBER 30

AICC spokesperson Alka Lamba today called the Agnipath scheme an insult to armed forces.

Alka, while addressing mediapersons here, said national security had been made a contractual arrangement where soldiers would work only for three to four years. The Agnipath scheme is a big flop. The Congress is committed not only to opposing the scheme, but also reviving the traditional service system on forming governnment at the Centre.

Show respect to women politicians: Agnihotri

Pratibha Singh won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat when the BJP was in power. She is a respected and experienced leader. People should have the decency of respecting women politicians. — Mukesh Agnihotri, Leader of opposition

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He said people were reeling under the pressure of inflation and unemployment. She questioned what interventions Union minister Anurag Thakur, who represents the Hamirpur segment, had made to address issues and why the much-publicised Una-Hamirpur railway line project had received only a token budget.

Alka said Union ministers Smriti Irani and Meenakshi Lekhi were likely to visit Una for election campaigning. Local women should ask them why the cost of LPG refill had crossed Rs 1,100. She added 10 lakh youth in Himachal Pradesh were unemployed and the state was under a debt of Rs 70,000 crore despite the BJP rhetoric of a double engine development model.

Alka said the Chief Minister should ask the Centre for debt relief and the Congress would also support him. She said the mining mafia had been rampant.

Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said late Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was a towering personality. He added the leaders, who left the Congress to join other parties, should exercise restraint on their language.

Agnihotri said the Congress MLAs were being pressured by the government in the name of investigating agencies, a fact which was supported by Kasumpti MLA Anirudh Singh.