Two-year Congress rule in Himachal 'black chapter' in state's history: BJP

Shimla (The Uttam Hindu): A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation led by former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla and exposed the "misdeeds" of the Congress-led state government on completing two years in the state. "The two-year term of the Congress government will be known as a black chapter in the state's history as the government is neck deep in corruption, brought the state to the brink of bankruptcy by unethically benefitting its friends, promoting wasteful expenditure and economic mismanagement, besides flouting the law and order," Leader of Opposition Thakur told the media.

In its two-year stint, the Congress government has proved to be one of scams, he said. "First, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) has become a den of corruption. As soon as Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu took over as the Chief Minister, an employee of the CMO wrote an anonymous letter to the Prime Minister's Office, alleging that an officer working in the CMO was committing corruption in connivance with a senior officer of the state electricity board," LoP Thakur added. "Now this allegation seems to be true because the government is providing benefits to the said company through Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (HPPCL) as it has extended its completion timeline for the second time at its board meeting. Instead of imposing a penalty of Rs 162 crore for not completing the project on time, the period was extended by 1,765 days," he said. Secondly, the loss-making company has been given a work of Rs 150 crore, which was increased to Rs 288 crore, he added. "Not only this, the rate of debris removal was also increased from Rs 67 per cubic metre to Rs 88 per cubic metre and the quantity of debris has also increased from 1,74,000 cubic metres to 3,74,000 cubic metres, which is clear evidence of corruption." Pointing towards a liquor scam, LoP Thakur said the State Excise and Taxation Department has auctioned liquor contracts for February-March 2024 in which a scam took place. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken major action in the state and temporarily seized the immovable property worth Rs 9.31 crore of a liquor company based in Nalagarh. "The ED has seized property worth Rs 5.31 crore, including an industrial plot with factory, of Kala Amb Distillery and Brewery Private Ltd. Nalagarh... It has taken this action under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in a case of illegal supply of liquor in Bihar. Liquor is also being brought illegally from outside states and sold in Himachal Pradesh, causing a huge loss to the government treasury," the former Chief Minister said. The Congress government is also accused of changing the liquor policy, he added. "Now instead of writing the maximum retail price on the liquor bottle, the minimum sale price is being written. Taking advantage of this, liquor contractors are selling liquor at their desired prices," he said, adding that due to this favoured contractors are getting benefits but the government treasury is being defrauded. State BJP President Rajeev Bindal, Himachal BJP co-incharge Sanjay Tandon, Shimla Lok Sabha MP Suresh Kashyap, former Minister Suresh Bhardwaj and other party leaders accompanied Jai Ram Thakur while submitting the memorandum to the Governor.