All eyes on graft charges that dominated poll campaign

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, July 15

With the bypoll results out and the Congress government firmly in the saddle, all eyes are now on the corruption allegations levelled by political leaders against each other during the poll campaign.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had levelled allegations of corruption against the Congress rebel and now BJP MLA from Dharamsala, Sudhir Sharma. The CM had accused Sudhir of having bought 82 properties in and around Dharamsala in the name of his driver. Sukhu had also alleged that Rs 10 crore was spent in purchasing these properties in white money. He had said the state government would probe the land deals of Sudhir Sharma and the culprits would be brought to the book.

Reacting to the CM’s charges, Sudhir Sharma had levelled counter allegations.

The Dharamsala MLA had alleged that a confidant of the CM had purchased land in the Nadaun area of Hamirpur district for Rs 2.5 lakh. The same land was later acquired by the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HPRTC) for Rs 6 crore, he had alleged.

Sudhir Sharma, in a video statement issued recently, had claimed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was probing shady land deals and illegal mining allegedly being conducted by the confidants of the CM.

During the Dehra byelection, CM Sukhu had made allegations against former Independent MLA Hoshyar Singh. He had alleged that the Forest Department illegally constructed a road to an upcoming resort of Hoshyar Singh.

Now that the election is over, it remains to be seen if the allegations levelled by political leaders during the poll campaign are actually probed or was it just a political rhetoric.

During the 2022 Assembly elections also, the political parties and leaders had made serious charges of corruption against each other. The Congress had alleged corruption in the constable recruitment process during the previous BJP rule. It had promised to get the recruitment process probed. However, after coming to power the party did not order any inquiry into the alleged scam.

The Congress leaders claimed that the previous government had handed over the inquiry into the recruitment scam to the CBI before the election and it cannot do anything now.

The Vigilance Department had initiated an inquiry into loans given by the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, which had turned Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and caused huge losses to the bank. However, for the past two years no action had been taken against the culprits.

The ED in the recent past had alleged that the state government suffered a loss of about Rs 78 crore due to theft of material from a stone crusher in Una district. The ED had also filed a case in the court, but the state government has not taken any action against the stone crusher.