If voted to power, BJP will withdraw OPS: Palampur MLA Ashish Butail

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 12

If the BJP comes to power in the state, it will withdraw the old pension scheme (OPS), alleged Palampur MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Ashish Butail here today.

Butail, while addressing mediapersons, said that the Congress government had implemented the OPS in Himachal, which was one of the 10 election guarantees. In Rajasthan, the BJP after coming to power withdrew the OPS. The party should clarify its stance on the OPS, he added.

State denied special package

The state did not get a special financial package from the Union Government in view of the disaster. The people of the state should ask BJP leaders why a special package was not given to Himachal after the rain disaster. —Ashish Butail, palampur MLA & Chief parliamentary secretary

He said Sudhir Sharma, BJP candidate from Dharamsala, withdrew from election whenever the situation was difficult. He added, “Sudhir Sharma had declined to contest the Dharamsala Assembly bypoll in 2019 when the situation was unfavourable. He had also declined to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Now, he has deserted the party as he was sore with the Congress for not being made a minister. Many senior Congress leaders did not get a chance to become a minister when Sharma was inducted into the Cabinet in the Virbhadra Singh government. However, those leaders did not desert the party.”

Butail said allegations levelled by the Congress rebels that the state government was biased against Kangra were baseless. He added that the present government had given the status of tourism capital to Kangra. Many mega projects like the expansion of the Gaggal airport and the setting up of a tourism village were in the pipeline for Kangra.

He said the BJP was building up a rhetoric that the Congress government would fall after the Lok Sabha elections while the fact was that it was stable. “After six Congress rebels were disqualified, the strength of the Himachal Assembly was reduced to 62. The Congress has a comfortable majority of 34 members in the House of 62. Besides, the remaining 34 MLAs of the Congress are supporting Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and there is no threat to the government,” he added.

Butail said the BJP MLAs and MPs did not plead the case for a special package to Himachal after the rain disaster last year. “The state did not get a special financial package from the Union Government in view of the disaster. The people of the state should ask BJP leaders why a special package was not given after rain disaster,” he added.

He said that what the Congress rebels had done was unprecedented and the people of the state would not accept it.

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