Leader of opposition and former state Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has criticized Virbhadra Singh for its failure to get additional assistance from the center during his tenures as Chief Minister of the State. Dhumal in his press communiqué accused Singh for putting additional loan liability on the state. He said that the state Govt has taken a loan of Rs 1700 Cr in three months and the state is heading for a financial crunch and the continuation of Virbhadra Singh as Chief Minister will lead to the financial disaster in the state.
Former CM said that the special Plan assistance in the annual Plan 2012-13 was Rs 1400 crores which have been reduced to Rs 1350 Cr in the next year’s Annual Plan of 2013-14 by the Planning Commission. He said that he got the Special Plan assistance of Rs 1400 Cr in the Annual Plan of 2012-13 which was an increase of Rs 400 Cr over the Annual Plan of 2011-12. He said that the Uttrakhand Chief Minister has got the Special Plan Assistance increased from Rs 1000 Cr in 2012-13 to 1050 in 2013-14. Virbhadra Singh has failed to present the case of Himachal Pradesh before the Planning Commission. Dhumal said that the Special Plan assistance has always been decreased during the congress rule in the state. The Special Plan assistance was 524.75 Cr when BJP left the Govt in 2002-03. The Plan assistance was reduced to Rs 342 Cr in 2007-08 during the congress rule of Virbhadra Singh. The congress Govt has always failed to protect the financial interests of the people of Himachal Pradesh whenever they came to power in the state.
BJP leader said that during the BJP Govt the Special Plan Assistance was increased to Rs 450 Cr in 2008-09 from Rs 342 Cr which was an increase of Rs 108 Cr. During the financial year 2009-10 the Special Plan Assistance was increased to Rs 500 Cr which was increase of Rs 50 Cr over the last Financial Year. The Special Plan Assistance was got increased to Rs 782 Cr in 2010-11 which was an increase of Rs 282 Cr over the last financial year. The Special Plan Assistance was got increased to Rs 1000 Cr in 2011-12 by him after strongly presenting the case before the Planning Commission. The Last Financial year year 2012-13 he got the Special Plan Assistance of Rs 1400 Cr from the Planning Commission which was a record increase of Rs 400 Cr in one year. He said it is very unfortunate that Virbhadra Singh has even failed to maintain the present level of the Special Plan Assistance and agreed for a cut of Rs 50 Cr in the Special Plan Assistance in the annual Plan of 2013-14.
Leader of opposition said that the outlay of 12th Five year Plan of Rs 22800 Cr was finalized during his tenure. The congress leaders are taking wrong credit for this. He said that he got the increase of 65 % in the 12th Plan outlays. The 11th Five year Plan was finalized during the congress govt. The outlay of the 10th Plan was increased to 13778 Cr from 10300 Cr in the 10th Five Year Plan which was an increase of 35 %.
He claimed that the Plan size was reduced to Rs 1335 Cr from Rs 1840 Cr in 2003-04 during tenure of the Congress Govt in the state. But unfortunately the Congress Govt did not increase the expenditure with the result that the Annual Plan for 2004-05 was only approved for Rs 1400.38 Cr by taking the expenditure level of 2003-04 as the base. He said the Planning Commission reduced the Plan size of the state to 1382 Cr in 2000-2001 during of BJP Govt in the state but he maintained the plan size by spending Rs 1722.17 Cr by mobilizing our own resources. It was Rs 340.17 Cr higher than the approved plan size by the Planning Commission. On our performance in expenditure, the Planning Commission fixed the plan size of the state to Rs 1720 Cr for the year 2002-03.
Prem Kumar Dhumal accused Virbhadra Singh of misleading the innocent people of the state by giving false information for narrow political motives. He said that the Loan liability of the state has increased during the congress Govt as they have no resource mobilization plan and also the financial mismanagement. The congress Govt raised the loan of Rs 8032 Cr from 2002-03 to 2007-08 and total loan liability was Rs 21241 Cr at the end 2007-08. The BJP Govt has paid all the arrears of the pay revision, pension and DA liabilities of the employees and the total loan raised from 2008-09 to 2012-13 was Rs 7272 Cr. He said that the cut in the Plan assistance will increase the loan liability of the govt.
He appealed to the people of the state especially the Mandi parliamentary constituency to come forward to oust Virbhadra Singh by defeating his wife in the Mandi Lok Sabha by- election to save the state from the financial crunch. Virbhadra Singh has done a grave political and economic injustice with the people of the Mandi parliamentary constituency. He said the victory of Jai Ram Thakur will lead to the change in the congress leadership and benefit the people of the state especially the Mandi parliamentary constituency district.
