Jai Ram Thakur cheated people of Himachal – Cong.

Agriculture Minister Prof. Chander Kumar and Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Minister Anirudh Singh alleged that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jai Ram Thakur was still playing politics of lies and even while in power, he had cheated the people of the state.

In a joint press statement issued here today, both the ministers said that the LoP’s claims regarding the release of interim relief amount by the Central Government were absolutely false and the first installment of interim relief has not been released by the Center so far. He said that Jai Ram Thakur should not exert himself to mislead the people of the State and instead of playing politics he should help the State Government in getting financial assistance from the Center in the interest of the state.

The duo said that out of Rs. 315 crore relief amount which was stuck for the last few years due to audit para, Rs. 189 crore has been released by the Central Government. These audit objections were removed by the efforts of the State Government, but the balance amount was yet to be released out of the total amount. He said that under the SDRF, a total of Rs. 360 crore were to be released to the state every year in two installments in lieu of the damage caused by the calamity. The central government released the first installment of Rs. 180 crore in June and the second installment of Rs. 180 crore, to be received in December, has been released to the state in advance. This Rs. 360 crore is the right of Himachal Pradesh, which is given to all the states and no separate financial assistance has been released yet.

Prof. Chander Kumar and Anirudh Singh said that due to the unprecedented calamity in Himachal, the state has suffered a loss of around Rs. 8000 crore. A team of the Central Government has also visited the state, but so far not a single penny has been released by the Central Government to compensate for this loss. He said that Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Union ministers in Delhi to apprise them about the situation in the state and demanded the release of the first installment of interim relief for the state. He said that the state government was making all-out efforts to provide help to the affected with its limited resources, but the state government was still waiting for the first installment of interim relief from the central government on the current devastation.

They said that due to the misdeeds of the previous BJP government, today Himachal was facing an economic crisis. In the last five years, the BJP only trumpeted the double engine, but Himachal got nothing.