Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition, Jairam Thakur, has strongly criticized the Himachal Pradesh government, accusing it of failing to deliver on its promises and plunging the state into heavy debt. In an informal interaction with journalists, Thakur alleged that the government’s only significant achievement in its 22 months of rule is taking a loan of ₹25,000 crore.
Thakur pointed out that the present government had promised to create one lakh jobs annually in the public sector but, instead, abolished 1.5 lakh government posts and terminated over 12,000 employees. He further claimed that even the Congress high command has acknowledged that the party’s false guarantees have tarnished its reputation.
Referring to the 10 guarantees made by Congress during the assembly elections, Thakur reminded the government of its unfulfilled promises, which he said were instrumental in the party coming to power. One of the most glaring examples, according to Thakur, is the promise of providing 300 units of free electricity to all consumers. “Instead of delivering on this promise, the government has taken away the benefit of 125 free units already being provided, and now bills exceeding 300 units are being charged at commercial rates,” he said.
He also highlighted the government’s failure to deliver on its promise to provide ₹1,500 per month to women aged 18 to 60. According to Thakur, just before the Lok Sabha elections, the government tried to appease voters by giving only one installment to 26,000 women, falling far short of the original promise. Similarly, guarantees to buy cow milk at ₹80 per liter and buffalo milk at ₹100 per liter, as well as creating a ₹680 crore startup fund to offer interest-free loans to 1,000 youths in each constituency, were also not fulfilled.
Thakur accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of misleading the public with claims that the government had fulfilled its guarantees. He stated, “The Chief Minister’s statement that we have fulfilled our promises is crossing every limit of deceit.”
He further alleged that due to these false promises, the public no longer takes the Congress leaders seriously. “Today, the Congress leadership in Himachal has lost credibility, and even the top leadership in Delhi is distancing itself from them,” he added.
Thakur emphasized that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had exposed these false guarantees in the state assembly with documented evidence and vowed that the party would continue to hold the government accountable for its unfulfilled promises in the future.
