Shimla: Education minister ID Dhiman, health minister JP Nadda and social welfare minister Sarveen Choudhary have termed former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s outbursts over 100 days performance of the BJP government as blatant lies that were misleading and smacked of deep rooted frustrations.
In a joint communiqué, the ministers state that Vibhadra Singh was unable to digest the highly imaginative and innovative decisions taken by the new government.
They state that making a provision of 50 % reservation for women in Panchayti Raj Institutions and urban local bodies was a landmark decision taken by the BJP government.
It was a benchmark towards empowerment of women that would enlist their active participation in the development process. The previous chief minister could not even accept bonafides for a bill providing 50 percent reservation to women, the minister say.
Rubbishing the claim of Virbhadra Singh about congress being the prime mover for enhancing the 2008-09 state annual plan to Rs 2400 crore, the ministers state that the claim was not based on facts because in reality the then congress government by projecting wrong figures had actually resulted into the loss of Rs 133 crore under annual plan for year 2007-08.
The state could have received Rs 475 crore instead of Rs 342 crore which was received under special central assistance (SCA). Chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has succeeded in obtaining the full SCA of Rs 450 crore for the annual plan of 2008-09 which was an increase of 32 % over last year, the trio state.
The BJP Government has got sanctioned 2 Indian Reserve Battalions (IRB) with one more such battalion likely to be sanctioned soon. One battalion would exclusively be of women.
Five year term of Congress government – an utter failure
Dhiman, Nadda and Choudhary have countered Virbhadra’s claim by terming the five year rule of congress as an utter failure where the government failed to protect interests of the state.
“The most conspicuous example was the state government failure in safeguarding the 10 year industrial package that was granted to Himachal Pradesh by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the NDA government rule,†they said.
The Virbhadra government even ignored the underprivileged sections of the society and barely increased daily wages by Rs 15 in 5 years where as the BJP government on the first day of assuming power enhanced the daily wage from Rs 75 to Rs 100. Similarly, the social security pension to old aged, widows and handicapped persons were also enhanced from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month which is a substantive increase of 50 percent where as the Congress Government in five years did not increase even a single penny, say the ministers.
The ministers said that making a claim about a budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore for subsidizing prices of essential commodities was a mockery and not based on facts as there was not even a single penny that was budgeted for it. It was the BJP Government who after assuming power granted a budgetary support of Rs 70 crore for the subsidized ration scheme.
The ministers alleged that quality of services in health, education, public works, irrigation and public health had deteriorated because the previous chief minister took no steps to fill up vacant posts.
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.
What the trio state is perfectly true. It was as if from an eclipse that the people of Himachal Pradesh have found light at this juncture, after the misrule of the congress government in power earlier. The power hungry former Chief Minister was wallowing in his own world, along with his coterie. These people cut themselves off from the common man and live in impregnable modern fortresses with entry to only their sycophants. When on one occasion I had to meet the CM for redressal of some grievance, forget about the redressal, I was not even given an appointment/audiance with the CM, with the Principal Secretary to the CM, Mr.Subhash Ahluwalia, vehemently refusing to give an appointment. He said that the ‘meeting’ was impossible. What sort of governance was that ? There is no accountability for public servants. It is high time that all the acts of impropriety and miuse of power by the former CM is thoroughly investigated by the present people-friendly government and expose the misdeeds of the so called ‘Raja’. With the abolition of the privy purses and the titles, everyone is equal in our democratic times.
May the present government devote its time for the ‘real’ welfare of the people.
Jai Hind, Jai Himachal
I fully agree to this comment. Only sycophants could survive in the kingdom. Unfortunately, these sycophants are still driving the naive BJP men who are easily befooled by these manipulative people trained in Congress Raj over the years.