Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu has blamed the previous BJP government for pushing the state in a debt trap.
Replying to the discussion on the state budget for 2025-26 in the state legislative Assembly on Friday, Sukkhu alleged that the previous BJP government had received Rs 68,000 crore from the Centre in the form of revenue deficit grant and GST compensation, but instead of using it to pay off debts or clear employee dues, they squandered it on election sops.
The Chief Minister said that his government had taken a loan of only Rs 29,046 crore in the past two years, out of which Rs 12,266 crore was used to pay off interest of previous debts and Rs 8,087 crore was used to pay off loans. This has left only Rs 8,693 crore for development works, he added.
Sukkhu said that the state government has proposed a capital expenditure of Rs 3,976 crore in the budget for the next financial year, but this amount would be increased accordingly as more resources become available.
He claimed that by the end of the year, the state would have spent more than Rs 5,000 crore on capital expenditure.
The Chief Minister said that the previous BJP government had taken loans of Rs 40,352 crore during its five-year tenure, but had not paid off the dues of employees and pensioners.
Sukkhu claimed that his government had focused on good governance and had reduced unnecessary expenditure in the past two years.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJP protested the Chief Minister’s claims on the state’s debt and the Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur stood up to counter Sukkhu’s statements.
However, the Speaker did not allow him to speak, leading to a brief uproar and walkout by the opposition.
The Chief Minister made several announcements, including a policy for compassionate appointments to be announced within a month, discretionary grant for MLAs would be increased by Rs 1 lakh, provision to be made in the budget for the development of Renuka Ji as a tourist destination and civil wing of the electricity board to be merged with other departments.