Sukhu govt did not restore OPS even after 3 months of being in power: LoP
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Shimla, Mar 20 – Leader of Opposition in Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur blamed the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government for not restoring the old pension scheme promised by the Congress before the assembly election after being in power for three months.
He said the Government has a lot of liabilities and restoring OPS is a bitter pill for the Sukh Government to swallow. He said employees are being cheated now as the government is still engaged in framing of SOPs for the OPS.
He said the Center would release Rs 8098 Crore as Fiscal Deficit grant to Himachal Pradesh for which the state should extend thanks to the Modi Government in the centre. He said GST compensatory grants have been withdrawn by the centre to all states as it was only for the period of 2017-22 only. He said the previous Government had projected Rs 13297 Crore for the salary of employees however this government did not increase the expenditure of Salaries as it would be around Rs 14000 crore.
Mr Thakur said the present government should emphasise the hydropower policy however the new government is trying to give more impetus on the solar power for which land is not available in Himachal Pradesh. He said a number of companies which were interested in setting up the Solar plants during the previous Government could not get the suitable lands made flight to Bikaner and Hoshiyarpur. He said the government has proposed the investment to local youth for setting up solar and charging units, however budget documents reflect no outlay for the purpose.
He defended the previous government for taking whooping debt to run the government stating that previous BJP rule took only 21997 Crore total debt in the last five years however with the present budget estimated this government would take Rs 10000 in the very first years. During the previous government per annum debt of the government did not exceed to Rs 4000 Crore however the present government would borrow two and half times more than the previous Government.
He said total borrowing did not increase above 69600 Cr however present government was trying to blame it for taking whooping debt of Rs 75400 Crore which is not a fact. He said when BJP government came in power in 2017 it had inherited a total borrowing of tune Rs 47906 Crore from the previous Government. He said the Planning commission has announced funds for the construction of Mandi greenfield airports, also mentioned in the budget speech of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Jai Ram Thakur said the state government has announced to start a Nursing college with all the Medical colleges which was already declared by the Union Government to strengthen medical colleges in the entire country. He said it is not feasible to equip all the medical college hospitals with PAT Scan which is not possible given the resources required for this facility. Mr Jai Ram said budget documents did not supplement the financial provisions therefore it is mere announcement. He said that the Congress government befooled the women as it announced 21.50 lakh women to provide Rs 1500 pension, however the budget speech mentioned Rs 350 to 500 to 2.50 lakh women. He said that Rs 3600 crore would be required to complete the Guarantee of Rs 1500 to all the women between the age group of 18 to 60 yrs.
