Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur on Monday said the development of Himachal Pradesh has taken a reverse gear in 16 months of the Congress government.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Thakur said that the Congress government has nothing to claim in the name of development.

“It has been a year since the disaster caused by monsoons in the state and still now people are running from pillar to post for help. People who had become landless have not yet got land and they are forced to live in the forests,” he alleged.

Such insensitivity towards the disaster affected is very sad, he lamented.

“The government should remember its promises and help the people effectively on the basis of humanity. Nothing is going to happen with just verbal promises. The homeless people have been waiting for help from the government for the past one year,” he claimed.

Thakur said that thousands of houses were completely destroyed in the state due to the tragedy that struck Himachal Pradesh last year.

People’s homes, orchards, fields, crops, cattle sheds, everything was destroyed. There were many people whose lands were washed away and people became landless, he said.

“BJP had demanded land for building houses for the affected people and had also raised it in the House during the Assembly session. Consequent to it the government had issued a formal order announcing to give 3 biswa land in rural areas and 2 biswa land in urban areas to the landless people. Despite the lapse of one year since this announcement of the government, not even a single landless person has got even an inch of land and people are forced to live in forests,” he charged.

This issue has even been raised many times by the media, but the government has not paid heed to take effective steps in such an important and sensitive matter, he said.

The Leader of Opposition said that the government has completely stalled the development works in the state and is taking loans regularly to run the government.

The roads damaged during the disaster have not been repaired and the debris lying on the side of the roads has also not been removed, which is again causing trouble for the people in this rainy season.

It is high time the government should speed up the development works and solve the issues of public interest seriously, he said, demanding fulfilment of the promise of employment made to the youth of the state by the Congress before coming to power.