Shimla: On the eve of Himachal budget session that starts on Thursday, congress demanded dismissal of the BJP government for publishing a wrong map of the country that undermined the position of the nation on a sensitive issue.
Speaking to the media, state congress president Thakur Kaul Singh said that the President of India and central government needed to take cognizance of the issue and the state government should be dismissed.
“No state government which undermines the position of the union government in the international community should be tolerated,” he said.
“Withdrawing the offensive diary is an easy solution, but the criminal liability needs to be owned up,” he added.
Talking about the ensuing budget session, he said that the hurriedly convened shortened session was only an exercise to announce sops for wooing voters in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The government was out on a inauguration and foundation laying spree without really having delivered anything to the people in the past year, the congress president said.
Condemning the attack of congress legislator Mukesh Agnihotri in Santokgarh constituency of Una on Tuesday, Singh said that the government functionaries were not tolerating democratically elected leaders.
He said the leader was protesting over not being included in an inauguration function of the government over a project which primarily was completed by the previous congress government.
Mentioning the decline in prices in petro products, Thakur said that the chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had assured the Vidhan Sabha that tariffs of public transport would be rolled back when prices fell. “The government till date has been unable to do so,” he said. He demanded that tariffs be reduced immediately to bring relief for the common traveller.
He asked the government to make its stand clear on regularisation of encroachment policy. “Between 1998-2003, the then BJP government asked people to file affidavits about the encroached lands they held and now that very document was being used to prosecute them for violation of land laws,” said Thakur.
The congress president said that the party was fully geard up for the Lok Sabha elections. He dismissed media reports that candidates for 3 of the four seats had been finalised. He said that the party central selection committee was scheduled to meet soon which would release the names of candidates for all the seats in Himachal.
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.
