Refuting Congress members’ allegations of the budget being election-centric, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday said the government has consolidated and maintained continuity in schemes announced in previous budgets.

Replying to the budget debate in the house, Thakur said the initiatives of reducing the age limit for social security pension, Grihani Suvidha Yojana, and Himcare weren’t started in the election year.

The opposition members termed the budget document as a bundle of lies but didn’t prove the allegations. They also raised questions on the projected growth rate of 8.3 percent in 2021-22 but it was as per the set formula while citing the growth projections put forward by Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Haryana governments.

He lauded his government for maintaining fiscal discipline and stated that the government didn’t breach the prescribed loan limit despite the Covid pandemic and there was still a limit of Rs 5,300 crore available for the current financial year. The government may take loans worth Rs 2,000 crore till 31 March but even after that, there will be a limit of Rs 3,000 crore available for the government.

The CM said the state government had the authorisation of the Centre government RBI for taking loans in view of poor economic conditions in all states due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

He compared the budget outlays for different sectors such as health, PWD, agriculture, horticulture, and Jal Shakti and said the present government had increased the amount for all these sectors as compared to the previous government.

He stated that the present fiscal deficit and liabilities were due to the financial mismanagement of the previous Congress regime and now they want to turn their lies into truth. But we have presented our response on facts and the government will try to implement all schemes and work dedicatedly till the Model Code of Conduct is implemented in the state.

The CM said the Congress leaders claim to have ruled the state for six terms but that doesn’t mean that it gives them the right to flout all norms and set rules. The previous Congress regime even performed foundation laying ceremonies of various colleges without making budget allocation and there wasn’t even land available for setting up these.

He accused the Congress members of pursuing its agenda through employees and other protests and said they will again support the BJP government once they see through their agenda.

“Congress leaders tried to accuse us of corruption and scam in the last four years but the malicious agenda was neglected by the people of the state. While on the other hand, the previous Congress government was completely mired in scams and scandals after four years rule,” he added.