Jai Ram Thakur, former chief minister and leader of opposition, termed the white paper brought by the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh on the state’s fiscal health as a “bundle of lies”, like its 10 guarantees. This white paper clearly shows that Congress has started a new chapter of lies, he charged.

During an interaction with media in the state capital, Sunday, Thakur said that all the figures given in the white paper are false, wrong and do not hold the truth. “We want to remind the Congress Party that this mismanagement started during the Congress rule from 1993 to 1998, when Congress had taken a loan of Rs 1,000 crore from the market in the name of the electricity board, the (interest) rates of which were very high and there was no justification for this loan,” he claimed.

Furthermore, from 2012 to 2017 the then Congress government took a loan of more than Rs 20,000 crore despite there being no need for it, he added.

“In 2017, when our government (BJP) came to power, we paid the three DA instalments of 2016 and 2017 of the Congress-era, which was about 18 per cent, and also gave an additional 3 per cent. Perhaps the Congress party does not see this,” he said.

From 2012 to 2017, the Congress had taken a huge loan which is the highest in the history of the state till date. This loan had increased from Rs 28,000 crore to Rs 47,000 crore. If we see the jump, it is 66 per cent, he maintained.

The Congress government had to pay Rs 9,000 crore to the employees of the state, which was however given by the BJP government when it came to power, he said, adding that the Congress government even did not follow the FRBM Act.

He said that his party had even faced the worst crisis of an epidemic like Covid.

“The Congress party is only misleading the public by lying and this white paper should be picked up and thrown in the dustbin,” he said.

“During our tenure we worked to take the state forward. An amount of Rs 10 crore was given by the central government for the Global Investor Meet, which finds no mention. Furthermore, two ground-breaking ceremonies took place during which MoUs worth Rs 13,000 crore were signed in Shimla and MoUs worth Rs 28,000 crore were signed in Mandi. So far, projects worth more than Rs 8,000 crore have translated on the ground,” he asserted.

When Mukesh Agnihotri had been the industry minister during the tenure of the previous Congress government, he also held an investors meet, however not even a single MoU could be signed, he claimed.

Thakur said the chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, has started schemes in his own name, but our party did not object. If any scheme is to be implemented, money will be spent. “If saving resources is the objective of the Congress government, then they should cancel their own schemes,” The Himachal opposition leader said.

“The Sukhu-led government closed institutions that the BJP opened despite the staff criteria being fulfilled. Now, after closing them, the chief minister is busy reopening them and installing plaques in his name,” he charged.

“Our government took a loan of Rs 39,014 crores, but it is worth noting that we also repaid Rs 38,275 crores, including interest,” Thakur said.

He then said the BJP’s Janam Manch was the “most effective” programme, wherein the government went from village to village and solved the problems of the people. He said 258 Jan Manch were organized in which more than 45,000 complaints were received and more than 60 per cent of the complaints were redressed.