Himachal Pradesh: Opposition demands White Paper on schemes announced in last budget

SHIMLA: While initiating discussion on budget estimates presented by chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday, leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said on Monday that the CM did not mention the size of budget in his speech.
Agnihotri said while in opposition, the BJP used to criticise the Congress regime for taking loans but now it seems that the BJP government itself is now riding on “debt vehicle”.He said that 18 new schemes have been announced in the budget but before that the state government should bring White Paper in the House on 30 schemes announced in the previous budget.
Agnihotri said that in the budget, “development” has become a casualty. He said that out of 30 schemes announced last year, work has not been started on a majority of them. He said that budget estimates for 2019-20 failed to mention about the resources.
He said that after 2022, state will not get GST refunds and this will affect the revenue but the government is silent on increasing resources. He said that instead of mobilising resources, the state government is talking about funding from foreign agencies.
While commenting on the growth rate, Agnihotri said that state government is talking of 7.34% growth rate while in 2015-16 during the previous Congress regime headed Virbhadra Singh, the growth rate was 8.1%. He accused the state government of failing to generate employment claiming that in last one year, 32,662 unemployed people have been registered in the state.
He said that state is also witnessing lesser footfall of tourists besides decline in fruit and agriculture produce.