Himachal Pradesh discriminated against over flood package in Budget

KS Tomar

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AN intense debate continues in the corridors of power about the intentional skipping of the figures pertaining to floods’ extenuation special package by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budgetary proposals for 2024-25 to Himachal Pradesh (HP), Uttrakhand and Sikkim in which she gave preferential treatment to Bihar, which got Rs 11,500 crore.

Sitharaman did assure financial assistance to HP which had been ravaged due to catastrophe in July/August last year, causing damages of more than Rs 12,000 crore, besides a loss of 550 lives.

Experts are unhappy over giving priority to Bihar, whereas HP has been ignored which was hoping against hope of a liberal assistance in the current Budget.

The Centre had ignored HP’s request of a special package on one pretext or the other. CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had gone to the extent of attending Prime Minister’s dinner to apprise him of the urgency of the special package though the Congress had boycotted it, but in vain.

Contrary to it, look at the irony of the circumstances that the BJP top leaders, including national president JP Nadda, the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, Opposition leader Jai Ram Thakur, state party president Dr Rajiv Bindal etc have been defending the Central assistance of over Rs 1,700 crore which was nothing but advance release of funds under various Union government projects and schemes .

They also harped on the advance amount released under national disaster response fund (NDRF) and state disaster response fund (SDRF). As per rules, it is mandatory for the Centre to release the NDRF and SDRF to each state and funds released in advance under various Central schemes as well as the NDRF and SDRF do not fall under the category of the “special package”.

It may be recalled that the CWC, senior party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi, Rajiv Shukla etc and Chief Minister, had repeatedly appealed to the PM and Home Minister to declare the HP catastrophe as a national calamity which could have been done on the lines of the Kutch disaster of 2001 and the Kedarnath tragedy in 2013 (losses of $ 1billion and 5,000 deaths), but it was rejected.

The inordinate delay in the announcement of a “special package” to HP to complete rehabilitation works, besides focusing on the creation of the infrastructure and skipping of amount by Union Finance Minister might not serve hundred per cent purpose of relief to over 550 families which lost their members and rehabilitation of lakhs of hapless people who were rendered homeless.

In this backdrop, the non-allocation of funds in the Union Budget for infrastructure development and flood mitigation could be termed as a discriminatory step, as the “special package” has not come even after a gap of 11 months though the victims of natural disaster could have given their blessings to PM Narendra Modi, who was having special love for people of the state due to his 10-year association as general secretary in charge of the BJP in early nineties.

—The writer is a political analyst and senior journalist in Shimla