Himachal Pradesh Budget session begins on a stormy note over restoration of MLA LAD fund; BJP stages walkout

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, March 14

The Opposition BJP on Tuesday raised the issue of restoration of MLA Local Area Development Fund, stopped by the state government, resulting in pandemonium, amid sloganeering on the opening day of the Budget session of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.

The issue was raised by BJP MLA Vipin Parmar after the obituary references.

Parmar said the move to stop the MLA LAD fund was anti-people. “As many as nine MLAs have given notice under Rule 67 to allow debate on the issue, which involves not the legislators but the public,” said Parmar.

Randhir Sharma, too, insisted that a debate be allowed so that the CM can disclose the reason for stopping the MLA LAD Fund.

Countering the attack by the BJP legislators, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said the state had been pushed on the brink of financial bankruptcy due to loans raised by the previous BJP government.

He said the Congress remained committed to honouring the 10 guarantees made to the people.

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said the grant of MLA LAD Fund was the right of the legislators. “The money is not for MLAs, but for the benefit of common people. The government chose to close the institutions that we had opened,” said Thakur.

There were heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the opposition as BJP MLAs demanded a debate and a reply from the Chief Minister.

Thakur said, ”It was wrong to mislead the public on the issue of financial position of the state,” adding, “We, too, honoured the liabilities left by the previous Congress government in 2017.”

The former chief minister said the BJP is not satisfied with the reply by the Chief Minister so they were staging a walkout.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said the issue does not concern only the BJP legislators, but all the MLAs. He said the matter regarding restoration of the fund was under the consideration of the Chief Minister.

The CM said his government wanted to change the system as there was a big responsibility on them.

“I was surprised to see that 920 institutions were opened in the last six months without staff or budgetary provision,” said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The CM said his government would bring a “white paper” on the financial health of the state. “I have always fought for the rights of MLAs. We have not stopped but stalled the MLA LAD Fund,” said Sukhu.

The CM said the previous government had announced DA for employees and pensioners, but did not make budgetary provision of Rs 992 crore.

Sukhu said: “A sum of Rs 5,000 crore will be required in case the institutions announced by the previous government are opened.”

The CM said the Congress MLAs had also demanded restoration of the fund, but the grave financial health of the state could not be ignored.

The CM said the restoration of the MLA LAD fund would depend on the revenue in the third quarter.

Giving his ruling, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said: The notice given by the BJP MLAs has been rejected as the issue had been raised by some MLAs by way of questions. A reply has been sought from the government.”