Himachal Pradesh Congress and CPM on Monday blamed BJP government and party ruled Municipal Corporation for fall in the cleanliness ranking of Smart City Shimla despite city MLA Suresh Bhardwaj holding the charge of Urban Development department.

State Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore said the ruling party only indulges in fake promises to divert the attention of people from key issues and didn’t focus on providing the best facilities to residents of the capital city Shimla.

“There is no improvement in water supply in Shimla, the roads are in a mess and the traffic system is in total disarray. Besides, there were various schemes sanctioned for the capital city but the BJP ruled MC failed to utilize the budgets and in addition, there seemed to be doubts in the minds of all of us that Smart City’s work will be completed on time,” he added.

Rathore stated that the fall in the ranking of the city in the cleanliness index certainly indicates the failures of the BJP in maintaining the city and providing the best facilities to the residents.

CPM Shimla district secretary and former Shimla MC Mayor Sanjay Chauhan too criticised the BJP and said the cleanliness ranking of Smart City had fallen to 102 in 2021 from 65th rank in 2020 due to lack of good governance.

“The lackadaisical approach of the ruling BJP is responsible for it as Shimla was on 26th rank in cleanliness index in 2016 when BJP wasn’t in power. But since BJP came to power in the state and Shimla MC, the government privatized all services and all recruitment is being done on an outsourcing basis causing exploitation of the hired workforce.

The privatization has also resulted in an increase in taxes on the residents while quality services are eluding them,” he added.

Chauhan stated that Shimla MC in its four-year tenure had only burdened the people with the hike in taxes on various services provided to people but there was no qualitative change in services provided to them.

Instead, there was a marked decline in services provided to the residents resulting in a fall in cleanliness ranking for which the state government and Urban Development minister Suresh Bhardwaj was directly responsible, he added.