Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament from Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, Anurag Singh Thakur has termed the budget presented by the Congress government of Himachal as ‘directionless’ and ‘hollow promises’.

“In the name of presenting the budget, the Congress government has once again deceived the people of Himachal. The Chief Minister has only completed formalities in the name of the budget. He should have also explained how the announcements will be fulfilled under economic emergency in the state,” said Thakur.

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He blamed the Congress government for running away from its responsibilities, leaving Himachal completely at the mercy of the Central Government.

Thakur said: “The Chief Minister spoke about the DA of the employees, but he remained silent about the previous instalments. The Chief Minister was silent on the Sixth Pay Commission. He did not look into the interests of PD Multi Task Worker, Veterinary Assistant, Chowkidar, MDM Workers.”

The Congress should tell what provision has been made in this budget to fulfill the false promises and guarantees they had made to the public to form the government, he stated.

Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while talking to media on the state government’s budget estimates 2025–26, said that this budget is completely disappointing and far from vision.

There is some amount for the development of infrastructure in this budget and there is no mention of any major scheme of the state government, he said.

“This is the first time in the history of the state that there has been no increase in the size of the budget as compared to the full budget. Whenever the budget is presented, the government talks about the government’s plans, achievements and future challenges in it, but the current budget is known to take credit for the central government’s schemes by hiding the facts,” he claimed.

Thakur said that this is the first time that the budget of a year has increased by only Rs 71 crore that is 0.12 percent as compared to the budget of the previous year. Along with this, only 24% of the amount will be spent by the government for the development of infrastructure.

“From the year 2018-19 to 2022-23, the expenditure on development works per Rs 100 in the budget has been Rs 39, Rs 39, Rs 41.22, Rs 43.94 and Rs 38 respectively. But in the present government, only Rs 24 has been left for other works including development,” he said, adding that it is clear from this attitude of the government in the budget that this time also the development of the state has not got priority.

Talking about the flagship schemes of the government, he alleged that they are also false like the rest of the claims of the Chief Minister.

BJP State President Dr Rajiv Bindal, while reacting to the budget said that this budget of about 58 thousand crores rupees is zero for the people of Himachal Pradesh.

“In the entire budget, the successive governments before 2022 have been cursed. Before 2022, the government left some debt, did not do any work, citing the same thing. The entire budget has been started and the budget has also ended by citing the same thing,” he alleged.

He said that in this budget there is no explanation about the loan that is being taken continuously, as to how much amount this loan will be taken and for how long and for what work that loan will be used.

No provision has been made in this budget regarding the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and neither has any answer been given on the closure of 1200 schools and about 1600 institutions, he stated, questioning the claims of providing quality education by the government.

The claims of providing quality in health is also contradictory as the government has closed health institutions.

“The budget has no mention of the welfare schemes Himcare Yojana, Ayushman Yojana. What is even more worrying is that you tried to deceive the public by changing the names of many schemes,” he rued.

Bindal said that this budget also deceives the youth, it has played a cruel joke with the unemployed and injustice has been done to the farmers.

Overall, this budget is a big fraud, injustice and exploitation with the people of Himachal Pradesh, said Bindal.