Saying Investors Meet big scam, Cong MLAs walk out

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 9

The Congress today walked out of the house after being denied debate on Investors Meet 2019. Just after paying tributes to four deceased members of the house and welcoming two new MLAs, Vishal Nehria from Dharamsala and Reena Kayshap from Pachhad, CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri demanded a debate on Investors Meet held by the state government in Dharamsala in November.

Agnihotri said that the meet was the biggest scam in the history of the state. The members of ruling benches got up on their feet following the allegation and countered Agnihotri. He alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by two bureaucrats of the state to sell assets of Himachal Pradesh to a chosen few.

The ruling party members got up from their seats and started raising slogans, ‘Chor Machai Shor’. The opposition members also got up and started raising slogans ‘Ali Baba Chalis Chor’. Both the ruling and opposition members tried to subdue each other's voice raising slogans against each other.

Amidst all this, the Congress MLAs walked out of the house raising slogans against the government.

While talking to newsmen outside the assembly hall, Agnihotri alleged that the Congress had demanded a debate on Investors Meet as the people of the state had the right to know how much public money was spent on it.

He alleged that the state government was adopting the MoU route and selling valuable assets of the state. If the state government wanted to give land to someone for constructing a five star hotel or bringing up a power project, it should float global tenders. The MoU route was veiled in secrecy and amounted to corruption.

He said that the government was running away from debate on expenditure incurred on the meet and did not want to put facts before the people of the state. The government had spent Rs 16 crores on putting up tents, Rs 3 crores on hiring rooms and Rs 6 crores on the publicity for the Investors Meet. The people should be told about how the public funds have been misused for the event, he said.

Agnihotri alleged that before the elections the government sold the idea to the people that 69 national highways would be constructed in the state. However, now two years have passed but not even a single penny has been spent on constructing national highways.

The Global Investors Meet is also a similar gimmick and is not likely to generate any investment on the ground. Certain bureaucrats of the state on the pretext of Investors Meet were trying to sell valuable assets of state to a chosen few, the CLP leader alleged.

He alleged that if the government was clean on investments made in the meet, it should bring out a White Paper on it.

MoU route veiled in secrecy: Agnihotri

• Mukesh Agnihotri alleged that the state government was adopting the MoU route and selling valuable assets of the state. If the state government wanted to give land to someone for constructing a five star hotel or bringing up a power project, it should float global tenders. The MoU route was veiled in secrecy and amounted to corruption.
• He said that the government was running away from debate on expenditure incurred on Investors Meet.
• The people should be told about how the public funds have been spent on the event