Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday criticised the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh for giving a significant portion of advertisement funds to National Herald, a Congress party newspaper.

Thakur questioned why the government is prioritising National Herald over addressing the state’s pressing issues.

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Lambasting Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s response to the media that National Herald is ‘our newspaper and we will give funds for advertisements’, Thakur said, “The government has allocated nearly one-third of its advertisement budget to National Herald and Navjivan, despite these newspapers having a negligible presence in Himachal Pradesh.”
He questioned the government’s priorities, highlighting the state’s struggles with healthcare, pending payments to contractors, and delayed medical reimbursements for employees and pensioners.

He emphasised that the government’s primary responsibility is to serve the people of Himachal Pradesh, not to promote a particular newspaper or party.

Questioning the government, he sought to know whether the people of Himachal Pradesh is not a priority for the government and will the government continue to allocate public funds to National Herald at the expense of essential services?