Walkout over Himachal CM’s reply to Budget debate - The Tribune India

atibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 15

Dissatisfied with the reply of Chief Minister to the debate on the budget proposals for the year 2021-22, opposition Congress staged a walkout in the Vidhan Sabha today.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today replied to the debate on the budget proposals for the year 2021-22. A total of 34 MLAs, including 17 each from the BJP and the Congress, participated in the debate.

Even as the Chief Minister was replying to the debate, Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri stood up and raised the issue of loans being raised by the government. “You have pushed the state on the verge of bankruptcy while demands of pensioners, employees and price rise have not been addressed in the Budget,” he said.

The Chief Minister said there was a good debate on the Budget with complete opportunity being given to the Opposition to speak. “Unfortunately, Congress only spoke of political issues and not about the Budget. Despite Covid crisis, the Budget is balanced and development oriented. New schemes like Rs 1,000 pension for women between 65 and 69 years and Rs 31,000 for girls from economically weaker sections from all categories has been started,” Thakur said.

Thakur said even Congress regime raised loans but now because of Covid outbreak his government had to take more loans. “It is Congress which is responsible for taking the state’s debt burden to Rs 48,000 crore and now we have to repay that along with interest component,” he said.

Thakur reiterated his commitment on the issue of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. Since Himachal follows Punjab, a final decision will be taken after seeing the report which is expected by March 31. He also assured the house that the power minister had been asked to seek a report on the allegations of varying prices of electricity meters across the state.

Agnihotri said, “The Budget document is only pushing the state further towards bankruptcy. Our stand has been vindicated today as the CM introduced the Bill for making amendments in the FRBM Act to pave the way for raising the limit on loans”.

He said that the Act of 2005 had put a limit on raising loans by the state government.

Published On: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 08:14:00 GMT