HP budget debate: Govt non-serious, says Cong

SHIMLA: During the budget debate on Tuesday, the Congress termed the government ‘non-serious’ since only one minister was inside the House when Congress MLA Asha Kumari began her speech. Earlier, Congress legislator from Kinnaur, Jagat Singh Negi, walked out of the session after raising question over the appointment of deputy commissioner as chairman of Local Area Development Authority in Kinnaur.

Negi sought some time to speak on this issue. When denied, Negi walked out, followed by other members of the Congress. However, Vidhan Sabha speaker Rajiv Bindal clarified that the walkout was by an individual member (Negi) only.

Negi said the BJP MLAS have been questioning appointment of staff by the school management committee and the chief minister (CM) is accepting their gratitude outside the Vidhan Sabha. He said the BJP government failed to make provisions for several important schemes and pointed out that in Kinnaur, the deputy commissioner has been appointed the chairman of LADA while in other areas, the local MLA is the chairman.

Later Asha Kumari, in the beginning of her speech said the government is “non-serious” as neither the chief minister and ministers (barring one), nor chief secretary and finance secretary are present inside the House during the debate on budget. She also said the budget is “visionless”.

She said the government should also tell the House that the horticulture mission mentioned in the budget was introduced by Congress government. She said it was a vision of the Congress but the present government has only renamed some of old schemes.

“Government has introduced providing school bags under free uniform scheme, whereas bags are not the part of school uniform,” she added. She also said the budget has nothing for jobless youth. “The government has forgotten jobless youth of the state. There is no provision for them,” she said.

Earlier, BJP MLA Narendra Bragta hailed the budget saying that interests of fruit crops have been taken care of in this budget. However Bragta suggested that the rootstock of Apple should be imported from USA or France instead of Italy, citing the quality issues. He also hailed the budgetary provision for anti-hail guns.

Meanwhile, CPM MLA Rakesh Singha said the budget has ignored common people. Singha added that the debt burden is rising but the budget has not expressed concern over this issue.