The budget session of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly began on a stormy note as the opposition BJP staged a walkout from the House on Tuesday, the very first day of the session, alleging the non-release of Rs 2 crore MLA Area Development Fund by the state government.
The BJP had given notice of Kam Roko Prastav (stop work motion) under Rule-67 to discuss the issue. The opposition raised the matter of stop work motion as soon after obituary references got over in the House and demanded an immediate discussion on the issue of MLA Area Development Fund.
Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur accused the government of giving political color to the issue of MLA Constituency Development Fund raised under Rule-67. He said that the financial condition of the state was neither good in our time nor is it good today.
He said that the situation is not expected to improve in the coming times as well. Despite this, the work of public interest should not stop, and they were just demanding the release of the MLA area development fund in the public interest. He also said that MLA’s constituency development fund is the right of every MLA and the government should restore it immediately.
Thakur charged that the work of closing down institutions is going on everywhere in the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led state government.
He said that the former BJP government did not stop the MLA fund even during the Covid pandemic period and instead increased it to Rs Two crores.
Accusing the government of lying about the loan, he said that between 2012 and 2017, the Congress government took a loan of Rs 27,000 crore and increased the state’s debt to Rs 48,000 crore.
Earlier, MLA Vipin Singh Parmar raised the issue of the stop work motion and said that the government has not only stopped the MLA Area Development Fund but has also withdrawn the funds allocated for several other schemes including the backward area sub-scheme.
He said that there is a provision in the budget for MLA Area Development Fund and in such a situation, it is completely wrong to stop the money of this fund.
BJP MLA Randhir Sharma said that the matter of MLA Area Development Fund is related to the development of the state, because many small development works are being done in the rural areas.
He said that for the current financial year, there is a provision in the budget for MLA Area Development Fund and its three installments have already been released, hence the government should clarify why it has stopped the fourth installment.
Sukhu said that even though the ruling and opposition MLAs want the funds, however, given the financial condition of the state, it was not possible to make provisions for the same.
During this, there was a ruckus in the house many times and the ruling party and the opposition also raised slogans against each other.
Dissatisfied with the reply given by the chief minister on this issue, the entire opposition walked out of the House raising slogans.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan said that the Congress MLAs have also urged the Chief Minister to release the installment of MLA’s constituency development fund, but the financial condition of the state is not hidden from anyone.
He said that the debt burden on the state has reached Rs 75 thousand crore.
This is the reason why the government has put a freeze on this fund for the time being.
He said that today the government has a lot of liabilities, which the previous BJP government had left.
The former BJP government flouted all the rules and regulations while opening institutions and opened hundreds of institutions without any parameters and budget provision, he charged.