BJP announces signature drive, ‘Halla Bol’ rallies against govt

Rajesh Sharma

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Una, February 4

BJP state president Suresh Kashyap today said that the party would organise a signature campaign and launch statewide protests against the decision of the Congress government to close down 619 public institutions in different parts of the state. He said this while addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of the ongoing three-day conclave of the state BJP organisation in Una.

Kashyap said that protests would be launched at the Assembly segment level, followed by ‘Halla Bol’ rallies at the district level. He added that the decisions were taken at the meetings of the core committee and the party office-bearers in the past two days.

He alleged that the present Congress government had increased VAT on essential items, thereby hiking the prices of one litre of diesel by Rs 3 and a litre of edible oil by Rs 6.

He said that Rahul Gandhi during his ‘yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir had cursed the Centre for inflation but in Himachal the Congress was responsible for inflation. He said that government schemes like Ayushman Bharat and Himcare were not being properly implemented since the Congress government took charge.

Kashyap said that the cement plants at Barmana in Bilaspur and Darlaghat in Solan were lying closed and as a result, 3,000 truckers and 10,000 families were suffering. He added that a political resolution would be passed against the state government on these issues at the meeting of the working committee.

He said that discussions would also be held on strategy and planning for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, besides the implementation of the policies and programmes of the government. He added that the BJP was going in for large scale digitisation, management and verification of workers’ data and discussions would be held in the coming two days.

Kashyap said that Union Minister of State for Highways and Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh (retd) would also address the working committee members tomorrow on the salient features of the Union Budget. He added that the Budget had provided Rs 1,902 crore for three ongoing railway projects in the state (Rs 1,000 crores for Bhanupali-Bilaspur line, Rs 450 crore for Chandigarh-Baddi line and Rs 452 crore for the Nangal to Talwara line).

Asked whether the party was introspecting on its defeat in the Assembly elections, he said that there were different reasons for defeat on different seats and that introspection at the mandal level had already been done.

Khanna: Rail infra to be strengthened

• The funds allocated to the Railways in this year’s Union Budget will help strengthen rail connectivity in Himachal, said BJP state in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna
• A provision of Rs 1,000 crore had been made for the Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Leh rail project, he said