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HP CM rebuts Opp’s charges, says previous Cong govt lacked vision

Addressing media, Thakur said it was a usual practice in previous government regimes that first Cabinet decisions were aimed at targeting political opponents but we changed this trend of vendetta politics.

HP CM rebuts Opp’s charges, says previous Cong govt lacked vision

(Photo:SNS)

Rejecting the Opposition Congress leaders’ allegations of his government’s “non-performance” in the last 3 years, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said all schemes of his government were aimed at ensuring public welfare while policies of the previous Congress government lacked vision.

Addressing media, Thakur said it was a usual practice in previous government regimes that first Cabinet decisions were aimed at targeting political opponents but we changed this trend of vendetta politics.

“In our first Cabinet meeting, we provided pension benefits to senior citizens by reducing the age limit from 80 to 70 years and now, the state government is providing pension benefits to 5.70 lakh persons as compared to 3.97 lakh in the past,” he added.

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The Chief Minister said the other schemes of the state government as Himcare, Grihani Suvidha Yojana, Jan Manch, CM Helpline were also launched with the aim of bringing change in the lives of common man.

Earlier, there was a trend in previous Congress regimes that development activities in opposition party MLAs and even in their own party MLAs’ areas who were not their loyalists, were stopped.

This bias had resulted in some areas getting deprived of development which was the right of the people but they continued this practice for their own petty political gains, he said.

He further stated that his government wasn’t working with such a biased attitude.

The present government had launched development projects worth Rs 140 crore in Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri’s constituency, Rs 103 crore in former CM Virbhadra Singh’s constituency and Rs 100 crore in MLA Vikramaditya Singh’s constituency.

“Nothing of this sort had happened in Himachal in past and even during the Covid pandemic, the government has initiated development projects worth Rs 3,500 crore in the state.

But the opposition leaders seemed to be living in their own dream world and it is the reason that they can’t see the reality and are accusing the government of non-performance in the last 3 years,” he said. He advised the opposition leaders to choose their words carefully as it had been noted that the party leaders change their stance on various issues as per their convenience.

“At the start of Covid crisis, Congress leaders demanded that the government bring back residents who were stranded in other states to their native places and even met and submitted a memorandum to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya.

However, when the state government brought around 2.50 lakh persons from other states of the country, the same leaders staged a protest against the government by saying that it will result in further spread of Covid in the state. Same is the case with cancelling the winter session of state assembly as after the holding of session was notified both Congress and BJP MLAs advised the government to cancel it but later Agnihotri and other Congress leaders started criticizing the decision,” he added.

He also responded to the allegations of corruption in Covid crisis and said the state government had started investigations in these cases and the guilty wouldn’t be spared.

“Congress leaders’ allegations on taking loans for running government are also unfounded as the government runs in continuity and the present regime is only carrying forward the liabilities created by the previous regimes.

As per my honest opinion, no government can operate without taking loans for carrying out developmental activities in the state and the government in 2020-21 has returned loans worth Rs 3,700 crore as against the fixed liabilities of Rs 7870 crore which needs to be paid by March 2021,” he added.

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