Central development funds used to pay salaries, pension: Ex-CM

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur today accused the Himachal Government of spending the money provided by the Central Government for development on the payment of salaries and pension to its employees.

Thakur initiated the debate on the Budget proposals for 2025-26 presented by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in the Vidhan Sabha. He said, “This Budget has the least increase of only Rs 71 crore, which is mere 0.12 per cent. The reality is that development is continuing in Himachal with the help of money that it gets under centrally-sponsored schemes.”

Thakur said that the coffers of the state were empty and it was not spending any money on the construction roads, tourism projects or any other development work. “The state government has tried to take credit for central schemes in the Budget without mentioning the assistance provided by the Union Government,” he added.

He said that the previous BJP government had raised Rs 28,744 crore loans while in just two years of rule, the Congress government had raised Rs 27,000 crore loans, which was a record. “Our government had never exceeded the loan limit set by the Central Government, which you had crossed on several occasions. In the coming days, the loan burden will cross Rs 1 lakh crore, the credit for which will go to you,” he added.

Thakur said, “There has been a cut in capital expenditure, which is worrisome. Even during the worst times of the Covid pandemic, we had increased capital expenditure, which rose to Rs 6,029 crore in 2022.” He added that it was the UPA government that had decided that the GST compensation would end after five years in June 2022 for all states, so why blame us for it.

Thakur said that no budgetary allocation had been made for many schemes mentioned in the Budget and a major cut of Rs 2,354 crore (23.5 per cent) had been made in the allocations to the Transport, Flood Control and Irrigation, Water Supply, Education and Agriculture departments. “You came to power by misleading people and giving false guarantees, but now you are acting totally contrary to the promises you had made. The Congress had lied to people to come to power and was not making efforts to implement the promises,” he added.

Palampur MLA Ashish Butail, while participating in the debate, said that the Congress government was trying to clean up the financial mess left behind by the previous BJP regime. The state was not getting financial assistance and was also facing a step-motherly treatment from the Central Government. “Despite limited resources, the Chief Minister has tried to provide relief to every section of society. Efforts are also being made to generate additional resources,” he claimed.

Fatehpur MLA Bhawani Singh Pathania said that sincere efforts were being made to generate much-needed additional revenue. “Despite severe financial constraints, the Chief Minister has tried to provide relief to every section of society be it women, youth, employees or farmers,” he added. Hans Raj, Ram Kumar, Reena Kashyap, Inder Singh Gandhi and Kishori Lal also took part in the debate.