Leader of Opposition in Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Jai Ram Thakur on Monday termed the appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) as unconstitutional.
Addressing media persons, he said that the appointment of CPS has increased the financial burden on the state because they would be provided with offices and facilities of ministerial status.
“I would like to draw your attention to the cases of Assam, Manipur, and Delhi where the Supreme Court and the High Court have ruled against CPS. The courts have clearly written, on the basis of Article 164/1A, that the appointment of CPS is wrong and the manner in which the prescribed number has been set for ministers, harms his spirit,” he said.
He added: “When we ran our government for five years, we did not appoint a single CPS. It was a moral decision taken by us. We feel that the ministers and the CPS have been appointed by Congress only to save their government. Congress is not concerned about the interest of the state.”
He said that the Congress government first started the ‘D-Notification Express’ where a police post in Sunder Nagar, set up in 1952, was also closed.
“Everything stopped in our state. The cement plants have closed, but the government did not make any effort to solve the cement issue. The government should constitute a committee and hold regular talks with the cement companies. It seems that the Himachal Pradesh government is not determined to solve any problem.”
On the Cabinet expansion, Thakur pointed out that neither the minister nor the CPS is from Mandi and Bilaspur districts. He added that the Cabinet was expanded in a hurry which was unbalanced in terms of region and caste.
He said that Kangra had been completely sidelined in the appointment of CPS and ministers.
In November 2021, when the BJP government was sitting in Himachal Pradesh, a relief of Rs 12 in petrol and Rs 17 in diesel was provided to the public.
“Soon after assuming power, the Congress party increased the VAT on diesel making it costlier by Rs 3.01. Now diesel will be available above Rs 86 in Himachal Pradesh. This will increase the burden of inflation on the general public,” he said.