Shimla: Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) in Himachal has accused the less than three month old BJP government of abandoning its manifesto of containing prices of essential commodities, something that the party had committed to the people in the recent elections, in favor of implementing the saffron agenda.
State CPI (M) secretary Rakesh Singha in a media conference said, “illusion of providing good governance had been removed in just 80 days of the BJP government.
He said that the election manifesto was used only for garnering votes and after attaining power it had now been thrown into the dustbin for the party was determined to implement the RSS agenda.
“Can the chief minister explain which clause of the election manifesto mentions that RSS would be allowed to use government school grounds for conducting armed parades,†he questioned.
He said that the BJP manifesto which the government has adopted as a policy document had listed controlling prices as its top priority. Citing an example, he said, “edible oil that was Rs 60 per a liter in December 07 is selling at Rs 80, a rise of 33 percent in 80 days.
The people have been made to live with such high prices of essential commodities and the government has not announced any measures to check it, he added.
He point out that in the budget presented by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on 7th March, the government has even proposed to reduce the ration subsidy from Rs 100 crores to Rs 90 crores.
Talking about the 25% bus fare hike imposed by the government recently, Singha said compared to travel cost of 40 paise per kilometer in Jammu and Kashmir, 49 paise in Uttrakhand and 44 paise in the state of Assam, traveling in Himachal had become the costliest at 93 paisa for a kilometer. Commuting for common people of Himachal had become an expensive proposition, he added
The party has sought a withdrawal of the hike and has threatened to hold a state wide protest on 26th March.
About reducing government grant from 95% to 45 % to private colleges, he said that it would only make education costlier.
He said that the government was playing saffron politics by victimizing employees and transferring them and had played a role hand in removing Anil Wilson as vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
