Retorting to the allegations of patronising mafia, mentioned in Himachal Governor’s address on Wednesday, Congress Legislative Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri on Thursday said that Jai Ram Thakur led BJP Government should act tough against the mafia, instead of accusing previous Congress Government and begin to fulfil its poll promises.
Agnihotri, who initiated the discussion on the motion of “Thanks on Governor’s address” brought by the BJP MLA Rakesh Pathania and supported by the Col. Inder Singh said that having taken over the reins of Governance in the State, the new BJP Government had to decide, whether it wished to go on path of development and welfare of the State or to take the route of vendetta politics and blame game. Pointing a finger at interference of RSS in the BJP led Government, Agnihotri said that there was an impression that while Jai Ram Thakur was on the driver’s seat in this Government, but it was being controlled by remote.
He said there was no mention of promises made by Prem Kumar Dhumal before the election in the Governor’s address, and should not undermine those promises.
The Leader of Opposition said that Dhumal had promised to give 4-9-14 scale to youth, providing employment to youths, restoring industrial package etc but these promises were not there in the Governor’s address.
Acknowledging the short span available to the Government for preparing Governor’s speech, Agnihotri said that the paucity of time might be the reason for non-mentioning of these promises, but Government must deliver on the promises made by Dhumal.
Commenting on the first 15 days of Thakur in the CMO, Agnihotri said that the CM has to take decisions as per his own wisdom and BJP had raised large expectations of the people and now the Government should act upon its poll promises.
He said that new Government had convened four cabinet meetings however no major decision was taken in these meetings that shows that Govt was not moving towards fulfilling its poll promises.
Lambasting BJP Govt for blaming the last Virbhadra Singh regime for financial crunch in the State, the Congress leader said that the previous Government too faced crunch of funds but the Government did not let the developmental process suffer due to it. He said as Thakur enjoys good rapport with the Narendra Modi led Union Government, he should be able to bring enough funds from centre.
Agnihotri said that last Congress rule provided employment allowance and skill development scheme benefited around 1.50 lakh youth in the State. He said rather than doing away with such schemes, new Government should come forward with new schemes to provide employment avenues to more than 12.50 lakh unemployed youth in the State as its poll promise.