HP cabinet okays land for MLAs to construct private houses Virbhadra has exhausted all legal options, says Union law minister
Says CM is using state machinery to defend himself in various cases
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said governance is a casualty in the Virbhadra Singh-led government as it’s tenure was marred with various corruption cases.
Prasad, who addressed a press conference in Shimla under Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘Hisab Maange Himachal Campaign’, said chief minister (CM) Virbhadra Singh exhausted all his legal options but still did not get relief from the court in corruption cases.
“Virbhadra Singh is on bail and governance has become a casualty in the state. It is a serious case of financial improprieties and corruption,” he said.
Referring to the Kotkhai rape and murder case, Prasad said it was the first case in the country, where an IG-rank officer was arrested for the custodial death of an accused.
Prasad also accused the state government of not preparing a detailed project report of national highways. He said the state has been sanctioned 2,623 kilometres of national highways, of which, 740 kilometres are under National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), and remaining is under the state’s control.
“Of these 740 kilometres, work is under progress for 240 kilometres and a detailed project report (DPR) for another 450 kilometres is under process. But the state has failed to prepare the DPRs,” he said. For the remaining 50 kilometres, contract has been given for road construction.
“Centre has been proactive in rendering sound financial assistance to Himachal Pradesh,” Prasad claimed.
Talking about governance of the Union government, Prasad said, “We opened ₹30 crore Jan Dhan account and linked these with Aadhar and started disbursing subsidies directly. We saved ₹58,000 crore doing this.”
: The Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Monday okayed grant of 30 bighas in Jubberhatti, near Shimla airport, for the construction of private residences for members of legislative Assembly.
The cabinet also discussed the issue of allowing tea garden owners to sell and transfer their property. However, a decision on this was postponed for the next cabinet meet.
Sale and transfer of tea gardens is forbidden under the Himachal Pradesh Ceilings on Land Holding Act, 1972.
Recently, the army had also move an application to acquire large areas of tea gardens near Palampur.
Besides this, the cabinet also allowed farmers to posses up to 5 bighas of forest land in rural areas.
However, this is subjected to the condition that when taken together, the forest land and the person’s own land should not exceed 10 bighas. The issue of Radha Soami sect requesting the government to allow it to sell land received via donation, was not taken up by the cabinet.