In a democracy, such statements are not expected from the Deputy Chief Minister, Randhir cornered Mukesh on the CPS statement
Shimla, BJP state media in-charge and MLA Randhir Sharma said that
BJP alleges that the leaders of the Congress government of Himachal Pradesh are constantly attacking journalism, the fourth pillar of democracy. While Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu made comments about journalists inside the assembly, the Deputy Chief Minister also vented his anger on journalists yesterday. Not only this, recently this government even registered an FIR against some journalists, which proves that this government does not believe in democracy. This government does not respect journalists but finds an excuse to insult them, which the Bharatiya Janata Party strongly condemns. The statement made by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri about the Bharatiya Janata Party in his press conference yesterday clearly shows that Mukesh is suffering from BJP phobia. He has said that the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are creating obstacles in the financial assistance received from the Center, which is completely baseless. Congress leaders do not have any proof of this statement. I want to make it clear that the Central Government of BJP has been continuously giving full financial assistance to the Himachal Government. If we talk about the budget, in the last two years the central government has given more assistance than the estimate of the state government. For example, if I discuss the subject of assistance in central taxes, you will see that in the year 2023, while the budget estimated that the state would get financial assistance of Rs 8478 crore in central taxes, the central government has given assistance of Rs 9167 crore in return. Similarly, in this financial year 2024, while the estimate of the state was a few crore rupees, our central government gave Rs 10352 crore to the state as assistance in central taxes. In total, giving thousands of crores of rupees more than the estimate of the state government in a single item in two years shows that our central government is giving full financial help to Himachal. Not only this, apart from this, 111000 houses were received in these two years under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, for which an amount of about 1600 crores was received. In the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Rs 2643 crore was received as central assistance for upgrading 274 major roads of the state. In SDRF and NDRF, Rs 2300 crore came in these two years and in Mukesh Agnihotri’s department itself, Rs 300 crore came just recently for the Fina Singh project. Funds were also received for the projects of many departments according to the DPRs submitted. Therefore, I want to say to the Deputy Chief Minister, don’t make statements without facts, get information about the facts and also try to spend the assistance received from the Center. Our government had given Rs 1782 crore in SDRF NDRF at the time of the calamity, out of which this government could not spend Rs 140 crore till March 31. Therefore, there is no reason for you to make this allegation. The Bharatiya Janata Party has never discriminated and will never do so. I want to say this clearly and as far as the Deputy Chief Minister has said that if the membership of the CPS MLAs is lost, then even BJP MLAs will not be spared, such statements were not expected from the Deputy Chief Minister in a democracy. This is a dictatorial statement. Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh has been giving such statements but now the Deputy Chief Minister is also issuing such arbitrary orders and giving such dictatorial statements which the BJP strongly condemns.
