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Jai Ram slams Congress government for ‘disaster management failure’

Addressing a press conference at Shimla, Jai Ram Thakur said that the Congress government will soon complete nine months in power and had wasted most of its time in blaming the previous governments

Updated on: Sep 3, 2023, 24:24:15 IST
By , DHARAMSHALA
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Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday slammed the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh over “deteriorating economy” and failing to manage the situation due to disasters.

Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur (HT File)
Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur (HT File)

Addressing a press conference at Shimla, the former chief minister said that the Congress government will soon complete nine months in power and had wasted most of its time in blaming the previous government for every small thing while people kept waiting for them to fulfil the promises they had made before elections.

“Earlier, they would say that state’s coffers were empty and blamed previous government of raising huge loans. Now, they have come with the excuse that state was hit by disasters,” he said.

Thakur said that the previous government took a loan of about 5,000 crore in two years while the Congress regime has already raised loans worth 8,000 crore. “Now, they are preparing to raise loan worth another 1,000 crore,” he said .

Thakur said that as a responsible Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party has co-operated with the government during the disaster.

“There is no doubt that it is unprecedented disaster. However, the help Centre has provided during this hour of distress is also unmatched,” he said.

Accusing the government of failing to fulfil its promises, Thakur said that if chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu does not want to listen to the Opposition, he must listen to his own legislators.

Congress’ Assembly representative from Sujanpur, Rajinder Rana, has written to the Cm expressing displeasure over the government functioning.

Alleges bias in relief disbursement

He alleged that even during the disaster, the Congress government was resorting to the discrimination in disbursement of relief amount. He said that Congress leaders were distributing relief money to their near and dear ones while other people were left waiting for help, he said.

Thakur said that more than 400 roads were still blocked in the state, which has severely affected the apple season.

The former CM said that the Congress government had completely failed to handle the disaster and became completely dependent on the Centre

He also attacked the recent closure of 140 schools across the state, saying that over 1,000 government institutions have been closed since the current government came to power.

Thakur said that while the state was reeling under disasters, the CM was expanding his army of special duty officers and advisers.