MLA Bikram Thakur accuses Congress-led govt of overspending

Bikram Thakur, former minister and BJP MLA from the Jaswan-Pragpur Assembly segment, claimed that the recent presentation of the state Finance Department through the Financial Secretary had exposed the ‘vayavastha parivartan’ and fake ‘election guarantees’ of the Congress-led government. He was addressing a press conference at Jassur near here on Wednesday after presiding over the ‘Samarpan Diwas’ organised by the Nurpur unit of the BJP on the occasion of the death anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, a prominent philosopher and leader of the Bhartiya Jan Sangh (1953-1968).

He said the presentation, conducted after the withdrawal of the Central Revenue Deficit Grant (RDG), was an official admission of the government’s shattered economy. It was not a political accusation by the opposition, but the Sukhu-led government’s confession of a financial emergency, he said. “The department in its document has virtually admitted that the government is not in a position to meet its basic financial commitments. Ironically, the government can raise a maximum Rs 10,000 crore loan in the next fiscal year but it requires around Rs 13,000 crore to repay old loan liability and interest, which shows the ground reality of the financial condition of the state,” he asserted.

Thakur accused the Congress government of financial mismanagement, announcing fake guarantees before the Assembly elections without evaluating the state’s financial resources and long-term financial planning. He said after disclosure of precarious financial conditions of the state government, every section of the society, including government employees, pensioners, social sector pension holders and below poverty line families, was anxious about their future. He claimed that wasteful and extravagant expenditure on non-productive infrastructure and political appointments had burdened the state exchequer.