The monsoon session of the Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly, which starts on Monday, is expected to be stormy as the opposition is preparing to corner the Congress government in the state over handling the devastation after rain fury.

The Congress government has been continuously raising the issue and demanding the BJP-led Centre to declare the natural calamity as a national disaster, which has been ignored, so far. It accused the Centre of not releasing any special package for the state despite the state suffering the worst floods and landslides in the last 50 years.

Advertisement

While the chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, is claiming of handling the disaster crisis efficiently, the BJP has been targeting the government for having failed to handle the situation.

They are set to take the session as an opportunity to expose the state government, charging them of complete mismanagement.

The focus of the assembly session will be on the recent rain-triggered disaster. The Himachal Pradesh speaker, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, told reporters that 70 per cent of the business and questions are related to it.

Former chief minister and leader of opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, blamed the state government for having failed to help the people who have been rendered homeless, as landslides and floods have either partially or totally damaged their houses. He alleged that lack of coordination among the various departments have not helped to provide respite to the affected families. The farmers have also suffered, as their produce could not be taken to the markets, due to many roads being blocked and continuing to remain blocked, he said.

The opposition will also try to corner the state government on rehabilitation of the affected families.

Thakur also said questions will be raised on the guarantees of the state government that are yet to reach the masses and exodus of industries from the state.

The Congress government has targeted the opposition of politicizing the natural calamity, instead of cooperating with the state government to help the state tide over the situation.

Other issues that are likely to be taken up will include the issue of import duty on American apples.

The Congress has accused Centre of lowering the import duty on American and stated that the move would encourage imports and hit the apple growers of the state, whereas the BJP has been alleging the state government of misleading the public on the issue.

The session that will have seven sittings will end on 25 September.