Cong accuses Jai Ram of bias against Dharamshala

Accusing chief minister (CM) Jai Ram Thakur of bias against the Dharmashala assembly segment, the leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri on Sunday said the current

Accusing chief minister (CM) Jai Ram Thakur of bias against the Dharmashala assembly segment, the leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri on Sunday said the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has stalled all developmental works launched by previous Congress regime in the constituency.

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Addressing a press conference here, Agnihotri said the CM was on a two-day campaigning spree in Dharamshala, but didn’t utter a word about the development of Dharamshala.

He said, “ PM Modi’s visit to America, Xi Jinping’s tour to the country and abrogation of Article 370 is hardly any concern for Dharamshala residents. What matters here are local issues, and the CM should have talked about them.”

The Congress leader said the previous Congress regime had granted second capital status to the Dharamshala town, but it was rejected by the CM and he was yet to clear his stand on the issue.

He said Dharamshala was selected under the Smart City Mission during the Congress regime, but the BJP government stalled all funding for the development works under the project.

“The Centre revised the funding pattern from 90:10 to 50:50 basis, but the CM failed to raise state’s interest,” said Agnihotri.

“With the Centre already having messed up the economy and state government raising ₹1,000 crore to meet expenditure every month, how are these projects supposed to be see light of the day,” he said, adding, “While the CM blamed the Dharamshala municipal corporation (MC) for lack of development, the reality was that government stalled the funding to the civic body.”

‘CENTRAL VARSITY PROJECT HANGING FIRE’

The leader of opposition said the government was not serious about the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) campus in Dharamshala and the project to bring up a permanent campus was hanging fire.

“ The projects related to the tulip garden and the IT Park proposed to come up in Dharamshala were shelved by the current government,” he alleged.

He said the BJP government had lost all connect with the lower areas and discrimination with the region was such that the some important offices set up in Dharamshala by the successive Congress governments were being shifted to other districts.

‘INVESTORS MEET A PLOY TO SELL LAND RESOURCES TO BUILDERS’

Taking a jibe at the state government over the global investors meet (GIM) scheduled to be held in Dharamshala on November 7-8, Agnihotri said, it was a ploy to sell the land resources to the builders and realtors.

He demanded the state government to issue a white paper on memorandums of understanding (MoUs) if signed by the government in the run up to the GIM and the expenditure to be incurred on the event.

“The government claims that it has, until now, signed MoUs worth ₹ 75,000 crore, the reality is that most of the agreements are old ones, some even more than 10 years old,” said Agnihotri.

“The government is also signing MoUs with state-run companies just to mislead the public,” he added.