E-Paper
Himachal assembly winter session: Cong BJP spar over HPTDC hotel losses, illegal mining
The BJP legislators on the first day of the session (Wednesday) moved a motion of adjournment and demanded discussion on the matter
The second day of the Himachal assembly’s winter session began with the continued discussion on the “corruption” during Congress’s two-year tenure under Rule 67, with the legislators of both the ruling Congress and Opposition BJP levelling allegations on each other.
The BJP legislators on the first day of the session (Wednesday) moved a motion of adjournment and demanded discussion on the matter. No listed business was taken up during the second day of the assembly winter session.
From BJP, MLA Vikram Singh initiated the discussion and said, “The ruling Congress party has been levelling various allegations against us but why action was not taken in the last two years. You have no proof.” He also said that why the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) hotels are in losses. We haven’t heard something similar about other hotels in Himachal.
He also alleged that HPTDC, in its affidavit, told the high court that 18 hotels were making loss, meanwhile, another affidavit mentioned only nine hotels. He also alleged irregularities in appointments in various departments and said that the state government has been giving step-motherly treatment to the industry sector.
BJP MLA Sudhir Sharma raised the issue of illegal mining and said that “Chitta mafia” is working in the state unabated.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Sullah constituency Vipin Singh Parmar targeted the state government over the issue of the construction of central university campus at Jadrangal. Talking about the illegal mining he said that it is affecting the state’s economy and environment.
On the issue of the state government’s hotels making loss, Congress MLA and HPTDC chairman RS Bali told the House that no government hotels in the state would be sold. “The government never said in any meetings of the Board of Directors (BoD) that we were selling any of hotel properties though the BJP gave six HPTDC properties to private companies on lease,” said Bali.
Bali said that the HPTDC was renovating hotels and government properties, which had been lying closed. “The HPTDC is planning to generate revenue either by running only such properties itself or by leasing them out,” said Bali adding that the HPTDC hotels earned a revenue of ₹109 crore in 2022-23 and ₹105 crore in 2023-24.
However, reacting to Bali’s statement, BJP’s Randhir Sharma alleged that the state government was planning to sell the top government hotels, which are running into losses.
Rajesh Dharmani said that the Congress government has a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. “The Opposition BJP has no issues left that is why they are raking up non-issues and misleading the public. In five years of the BJP government, no liquor vends were auctioned while we brought a new Excise Policy and are earning revenue from it. There are a lot of scams in previous government and paper leaks. All rules were violated in recruitment,” he added.
Replying on the issue of illegal mining, industries minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said that illegal mining has been an issue in all the previous governments.
“I agree that there should be no illegal mining in the state. We are making all-out efforts to curb illegal mining in the state. In 2022-23 and 2023-24, a total of 8,451 and 10,036 cases respectively of illegal mining were detected and a total fine of ₹5.18 crore and ₹6.25 crore was also recovered respectively in fine,” said Chauhan.
“We have also earned ₹200 crore, ₹242 crore and ₹315 crore in the financial years of 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively. We have also introduced a new mining policy to increase our revenue and curb illegal mining at the same time,” added Chauhan.
Congress MLA Chander Shekhar said that various recruitment scams took place during the previous BJP government. “Corruption took place in the service selection board during the previous BJP government. In recruitment, corruption happened brazenly during its five-year term. I suggest that the time has come that state government should take action against the corruption that happened during the BJP government,” he said.
