‘It’s a total chaos… no monsoon preparedness meet this year in Himachal, shows Cong’s frivolousness’: Jai Ram Thakur
Himachal Pradesh Floods: "This government has the worst governance record. It has stalled almost all development projects. In my constituency alone, projects worth Rs 200 crore started during our tenure have been stalled, "Jai Ram Thakur, Himachal Pradesh's Leader of the Opposition said.
Congress does not have a favourable position in Himachal Himachal Pradesh Floods: After heavy rain-triggered landslides and flash floods wreaked havoc on the hill state, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has come down heavily on the Congress-ruled state government saying that the action taken by the current dispensation in managing the monsoon disaster leaves a lot to be desired. The Leader of the Opposition in the HP Legislative Assembly opened up to Raakhi Jagga about the burning issue, among others.
After the recent heavy rain and floods, Himachal Pradesh is in a state of crisis, how are you reaching out to the masses?
I am visiting different parts of Mandi, especially those areas where the damage is maximum. In Mandi district alone, seven bridges were washed away by the rain-triggered floods. These bridges connected people of Mandi constituency with Seraj, Darang and Banjar constituencies. The loss is colossal. We are here to reach out to the masses. I visited the rain-hit markets and houses in my constituency (Seraj constituency of Mandi district). I can understand the pain of the people and I am here along with my party to lend them a hand. The people are without electricity and water in many areas even now.
Don’t you think that the Centre should step in and provide immediate relief to the state looking at the level of damage in the state. The CM (Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu) has gone on record saying that such torrential showers and the damage thereafter had not been seen in the last 50 years.
No doubt the damage is huge as I have said earlier also. The central government always helps the states in managing disasters, but for that the state government has to complete its assessment of the total loss and send a report to the Centre and accordingly the funds are released by the Union government. Primarily, the state government needs to act fast and handle the situation on its own. This is a hill state and one has to be prepared to handle such natural calamities.
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Is the state handling the situation efficiently?
Not at all. It’s a complete chaos. In a state like ours, every calendar year, three meetings are held regarding monsoons and the state’s preparedness. In these meetings the CM, revenue minister, PWD minister and water resources ministers participate. However, this year, no such pre-monsoon meeting of the state government was held which shows the lack of seriousness on the part of the current dispensation. The state government was aware of the heavy rain prediction, but it did not issue any travel advisory to the tourists.
As a result, now hundreds of tourists are stuck in several areas of the state and most of them are not even able to contact their family members in the absence of mobile network and power connections. I have not found any organised database of tourists stuck in the state till now. Ideally, statutory warnings need to be given to the tourists as to which areas are safe for them to travel. During our tenure (BJP government’s regime), we used to circulate the do’s and don’ts to the hotels so that tourists were aware of the situation in the state.
How do you rate the performance of the Congress government?
This government has the worst governance record. It has stalled almost all development projects. In my constituency alone, projects worth Rs 200 crore started during our tenure have been stalled. Such a chaotic situation has never been witnessed in the state. It has denotified over 1,000 institutions that were upgraded or announced during my tenure as CM. These include health institutions, revenue offices, sub-tehsils, etc. Out of these, 50 were in my constituency itself.
When the BJP government took over in 2017, we did not cancel any of the projects announced by former Congress CM Virbhadra Singh. He had announced setting up 21 colleges at the fag end of his tenure. We instead carried forward those projects. Development should never stop even if there is a change of guard after the polls.
What were the factors responsible for the BJP’s loss in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls?
We were close to victory. The difference in vote share between the Congress and the BJP was only 0.9 per cent, which means around 37,000 votes were responsible for the change of guard. I think the promise of implementing the old pension scheme (OPS) by the Congress played a significant role in the poll results. In addition to this, BJP rebels played a spoilsport.
In many seats, we were ahead in EVM votes but lost after the postal ballot votes of government employees were counted. We lost nearly eight seats by a margin of less than 1,000 votes. We have to remember that population proportion-wise, Himachal Pradesh has the maximum number of government employees in the whole country. However, now the employees are in a dilemma as the money invested under the new pension scheme (NPS) by the Union government cannot be returned to the state government. I think employees are feeling more confused now as the OPS has not been implemented properly till now.
Don’t you think that the BJP should have taken the OPS implementation announcement seriously?
Such decisions or announcements cannot be taken in isolation. The BJP is in government in 18 states and hence any announcement done for one state would have implications in the other states. It entails huge financial implications as well. The present Congress government is already in financial distress as it was recently unable to give salaries to over 15,000 state employees on time. It kicked out over 10,000 outsourced employees. Except for the OPS, it has failed to even talk about its other poll guarantees till now. It borrowed Rs 8,000 crore loan in the first seven months itself while we had taken only Rs 5,000 crore loan in the first two years of our tenure.
How is the party preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls?
We are celebrating nine years of the Modi government these days. In the coming Lok Sabha polls, the Narendra Modi factor will work once again. Equations during the Lok Sabha polls will be different. The masses are clear about their choice. The country is safe under the leadership of PM Modi. India is lucky to have such a leader who has glorified the country globally. “Desh ko zarurat hai Narendra Modi ki” (The country needs Narendra Modi). The party has taken due cognizance of the rebel factor and other reasons that were responsible for the defeat… Congress MLAs are not comfortable with each other; they have lots of differences just seven months after forming the government.
Do you have any plans to contest Lok Sabha polls?
I have no plans. As of now, I am the leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha. I will continue working to strengthen the party’s base in the hill state.
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