leader of Opposition in the Himachal Assembly and former Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal on Friday came down heavily on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for bringing the State on the brink of bankruptcy by indulging in extravagance and wasteful and unproductive expenditure.
He said due to this, the backward hill state had been burdened under huge debt of `46000 crore. Dhumal said an army of defeated and rejected politicians had been recruited with cabinet ranks merely to rehabilitate his trusted yes-men at the cost of the state exchequer. Similarly retired officials of alleged doubtful integrity had also been kept on key-posts, he alleged.
Dhumal said all development projects in the State had come to a grinding halt. “The Central funds being sanctioned liberally were being spent in the constituencies of the Congress ministers. The constituencies of the BJP MlAs were being meted out a step-motherly treatment,” he charged.
All this was being done despite liberal central assistance and increase of central tax share from 32 per cent to 46 per cent totally to `40625 crore.
The former CM demanded that Virbhadra Sing should resign without further delay on moral grounds in the wake of the CBI inquiry against him and members of his family on serious charges of corruption.
He advised the chief minister to read the writing on the wall that during his misrule all sections of people in the state were feeling harassed and suffocated. He has failed to fulfill his election promises and come true to the expectations of the farmers, fruit growers, unemployed youths and government employees.
The BJP leader regretted that the condition of the roads all over the state had been worsened ever since Virbhadra Singh come to power and as a result of the deplorable roads hundreds of people had lost lives during the tenure of the Congress rule in the state. “Probably the chief minister may be unaware of it as he travels by air and did not know the ground realities,” Dhumal added.
Replying to questions that legislators were fixing their salaries in an arbitrary manner as they had done in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, Dhumal said he was in favour of the setting up of an independent and impartial agency for deciding the salaries of legislators, members of Parliament and members of the judiciary and other important persons from time to time.