Hailing the High Court order of quashing of appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP on Wednesday slammed the Congress government for the misuse of state exchequer.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jai Ram Thakur said that the appointment of CPSs by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was an unconstitutional decision taken in a dictatorial manner.

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The membership of all the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) appointed to the post of CPS should also be cancelled, he demanded.

“Even after the clear order of the Supreme Court and the High Court, this appointment was made by the government in a dictatorial manner to keep its MLAs happy,” he claimed, adding that the cost of which had to be borne by the common taxpayers of the state.

“The Sukhu government had taken this decision by staying outside the purview of the Constitution, which has been cancelled by the Court today. This decision taken by the government also makes it clear that the Congress Party government prefers to follow its own provisions rather than the Constitution,” he alleged.

Thakur said that the BJP was against the decision to form CPS from the very first day since it was unconstitutional and violated the orders of the Court.

The BJP raised its voice against this and even challenged this decision of the Sukhu government in the court, he stated.

Sukhu government used the resources of the state at every level to justify this unconstitutional decision, he slammed, charging the government of spending crores of rupees of the state to pay the fees of the lawyers to question the legitimacy of the petitions filed by BJP leaders.

The energy and resources that were to be used for the development of the state were spent by the government to justify its dictatorial decisions, he blamed.

The Leader of Opposition said that the government deliberately appointed CPS, due to which crores of rupees of burden fell on the revenue of the state.

“When we were in the government in 2017, this issue also came to our mind whether CPS should be appointed or not? So, considering it unconstitutional, we did not make any such appointment. How could the Constitution be openly violated by making appointments to posts which have been declared unconstitutional by the Court,” questioned Thakur.

The Sukhu government could have backed down from its stand on CPS appointments, but it seems that it does not believe in following the constitutional system, he alleged.

He congratulated the leaders of his party and the advocates pleading the case for taking a strong stand on this issue.