Jai Ram misleading on use of temple offerings: Congress

Congress MLAs Suresh Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Gaur on Thursday criticised Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur for allegedly misleading the public regarding a budget provision for the Mandi Shiv Dham project and the use of temple offerings for government schemes.

In a statement issued here, they said that while Thakur frequently referred to Shiv Dham as his “dream project, he did not make any financial provision for its construction during his tenure as Chief Minister. His so-called vision remained nothing more than rhetoric, with no real steps taken to make it a reality”.

They said, in contrast, the Congress government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, had allocated Rs 100 crore for the completion of the Shiv Dham project.

The MLAs criticised the Opposition for attempting to mislead the public with baseless allegations like the government was targeting temple funds with statements, “Mandiron ke khazane par sarkaar ki nazar”. They said that the government was committed to preserving religious heritage and traditions and had hiked the ‘nazrana’ for the deities by 5 per cent.