Himachal CM begins mass outreach drive
SHIMLA: Within days of BJP state president Dr Rajeev Bindal's exit following PPE kit purchase scam coming to the fore, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur seems to have taken in hand his party's biggest outreach drive –virtual rallies. It looks Thakur is not ready to wait for the new state BJP chief especially when the Congress is already upping the ante on alleged corruption in the medical purchases during the Coronavirus emergencies. Seven virtual rallies, addressed from his official residence ‘Oak-over' on Sunday between 10 am to 10 pm in districts of Una, Chamba, Kullu, Bilaspur, Sirmaur and Hamirpur was a record of sorts in a single day during the COVID lockdown time. Union minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur was also part of the rallies as he happened to join from Delhi, apart from cabinet ministers and local MLAS.
These were in addition to six, he had picked up on Saturday and now to be followed up by a 'Jan Samwad' virtual rally jointly with Union Minister for textiles Samriti Irani on Monday from the BJP Hqs, Shimla. As the party high command has not been able to name any successor to Dr Bindal, Chief Minister has taken up the front role to inform the party workers as what the government has done to contain the spread of the virus.
The opposition has been demanding Chief Minister's resignation since he himself has been heading the health department.
“It's under him (CM) a major scam has happened. Director Health Services Dr Ajay Gupta was arrested besides Prithvi Singh, a close associate of Dr Rajeev Bindal.
Chief Minister can't escape his moral responsibility. We want probe by a sitting High Court judge,” says Leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri.
But, Chief Minister in a counter offensive said “everything is done in transparent manner. There is no chance of any scam or irregularity. There is no reason for you (workers) to feel ashamed, rather keep your head high and tell the Congressmen to stop dirty politics in the hour of crisis”. He said “had there been a Congress government, either at the Centre or state, things would have been terribly bad and completely out of hands in this country‘s fight against the COVID 19. We are lucky to have a strong and visionary leadership in Narendra Modi's hands.” Thakur referred to state Congress party's attempt to ‘loot' its own high command by raising a bill of Rs 12 crore to ask for reimbursements against distribution of the PPE kits, gloves, hand sanitizers and other materials to migrant workers and front-line warriors.
“In whole exercise undertaken by the state government to bring two lakh Himachalis back home through a number of trains and buses, the total money spent was Rs 15 crore whereas the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, which did nothing, puts its expenditures at Rs 12 crore. Is'nt it a loot of its own kind? he questioned. Meanwhile, Chief Minister has been able to calm senior party MLA and OBC leader Ramesh Dhwala, who had raised a banner of revolt against BJP'S organising secretary Pawan Rana, a RSS nominee in the party. The Congress MLAS, who came to rescue of Rana and went to media, have also directed not to ignite the crisis.