PM Modi trying to mislead public on disaster relief fund: Vikramaditya

Vikramaditya, who is also the public works department (PWD) minister of the state, said, “The Prime Minister should tell with figures how much financial help he has given to the state during the disaster. He has tried to mislead the people of the state on the name of disaster relief, with his speech in Mandi, in which he said that he has given crores of rupees to the state.”

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally in Himachal Pradesh (HP) accused the Congress government of mismanaging the crores of rupees given as disaster relief last year from the Centre, Congress candidate from Mandi parliamentary constituency, Vikramaditya Singh on Saturday hit back at the PM stating that he is trying to mislead the public.

Congress candidate from Mandi parliamentary constituency, Vikramaditya Singh on Saturday hit back at the PM stating that he is trying to mislead the public. (Birbal Sharma/ HT)

Vikramaditya, who is also the public works department (PWD) minister of the state, said, “The Prime Minister should tell with figures how much financial help he has given to the state during the disaster. He has tried to mislead the people of the state on the name of disaster relief, with his speech in Mandi, in which he said that he has given crores of rupees to the state.”

PM Modi during his rally in Mandi on Friday accused the Congress government in Himachal of selectively distributing central aid meant for victims of last year’s floods and promised to investigate where the money went.

Vikramaditya said, “Due to the disaster, there was a loss of more than ₹12,000 crore in the state, whereas the central government released only ₹300 crore of NDRF and SDRF to the state during this period. Every year all the states get this money from the Centre to deal with such natural disasters, this is the right of all the states,” he said, adding that Prime Minister visited the state during the elections but at the time of the disaster, he neither came to see the plight of the state nor expressed any sympathy.

While addressing an election rally on Saturday in Jogindernagar assembly constituency, Vikramaditya said that he is seeking votes from the people for the vision of development in Mandi, whereas the BJP candidate is “entertaining people by talking about anything”.