New Delhi/Shimla:
How the financial crisis of the Himachal Pradesh government is deepening can be understood from an order of the Himachal High Court. The High Court has ordered attachment of the property of Himachal Bhawan located in Mandi House, Delhi. This order was given in the matter of not paying upfront premium i.e. advance amount of Rs 64 crore to Seli Hydro Power Project Company. The single bench of Judge Ajay Mohan Goyal said that along with this amount, the company will also have to pay 7% interest.
According to the order of the High Court, interest will be charged from those negligent officers due to which the company did not receive the upfront premium. Not only this, the state court has also instructed the Energy Secretary to identify the accused officials within 15 days. Now the hearing of this case will be on 6th December. The names of negligent officers will also have to be revealed in this hearing. After this decision of the court, the Congress government of Himachal Pradesh has come on the back foot. Now the order of attachment of Himachal Bhawan has become a question of the reputation of the state government.
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Know the whole matter of Himachal Bhawan?
On January 13, 2023, the Himachal Pradesh High Court asked the state government to pay the outstanding electricity bill of Rs 64 crore at Himachal Bhawan. Along with this, an order was also given to pay interest at the rate of 7% per annum. But, the Congress government ignored the court order and did not pay the dues within the stipulated time. Due to this the dues increased to Rs 150 crore.
Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has already said about not being able to pay salaries to ministers and officers due to lack of funds. Many projects are stuck due to lack of money. Now the order of attachment of Himachal Bhavan has created an uproar in the politics of the state. CM Sukhu is talking about filing an appeal against the arbitration of the High Court, but amidst all this, questions are also being raised regarding the policies of the Congress. In fact, Congress is getting cornered regarding its guarantee schemes.
How much debt does Himachal government have?
Himachal government has an outstanding loan of about Rs 94 thousand crore and employees’ liabilities of Rs 10 thousand crore. Himachal Pradesh’s debt to GSDP ratio has increased to 42.5% in the budget of 2024-25, which was 40% in 2022-23. This is much higher than the average ratio of all the states. Most of the government’s income is being spent on salaries and pensions, interest on old loans and repayment of old loans. There are continuous budget cuts from the Center also. The remaining work has been completed by the free schemes and guarantees of the Congress government.
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First promised jobs, then pulled back
Assembly elections were held in Himachal Pradesh in October 2022. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took charge of Congress’s campaigning in the state. In the first meeting of the newly formed government in Himachal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had promised to fill 63,000 vacant government posts and create 1 lakh new jobs in the first year. However, later the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh decided to abolish these posts on the pretext of ‘non-essential’ posts. Due to the failed policies of Congress, now the situation of confiscation of Himachal Bhawan has come. Due to this, the jobs of the people working here are in danger. It seems as if top Congress leaders promise jobs and their governments find ways to give concrete reasons for not fulfilling these promises.
What is the salary-pension payment model?
The model of salary-pension payment of government employees in Himachal is somewhat different from other states. State government employees now get salary on the 5th of every month. Whereas retired employees are given pension on the 10th of every month. In most of the remaining states, salary day is the first day of the month. Himachal Pradesh has made an attempt to save money by changing the payment model. But by withholding 5 days’ salary, Rs 3 crore per month and Rs 36 crore annually are being paid as interest on the loan. This pattern of payment indicates serious financial crisis of the state government.
Not only this, CM Sukhu has blamed the previous BJP government for ‘fiscal indiscipline’ through distribution of free water and electricity, free bus travel for women and opening of 600 educational institutions.
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Controversy regarding toilet tax
Last month, there was a lot of uproar in Himachal over the alleged imposition of tax on every household on the basis of per toilet seat. This uproar started after a tweet by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. However, the Sukhu government later rejected these allegations. The Sukhu government said that no such tax has been imposed.
From this it can be understood how the Himachal Pradesh government is failing in providing basic facilities to the people. If we look at the election promises and guarantees of the Congress, we will find that the Congress has broken the promises, but later has also reneged on those promises in the same bad manner.
Congress’s promises and their results in Himachal
– Congress had made the first promise of providing free electricity up to 300 units per month to all the houses. Later its quota was reduced to 125 units. Then as soon as the by-elections were over in the state, this scheme also ended.
-Second promise: The rate of purchasing milk from milk farmers was fixed at Rs 80-100 per liter. But later the purchase rate for milk farmers was reduced to only Rs 45-55 per liter.
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-The third promise was made regarding jobs. Congress had said that it will create 1 lakh jobs every year and a total of 5 lakh jobs in 5 years. But within a year the government could not provide regular jobs to even 1300 youth.
-The fourth promise was the promise of jobs under the Rajiv Gandhi Self-Employment Start-up Fund. But haven’t got any job yet. The candidates’ protest against the government continues.
-The fifth promise was to give Rs 1,500 every month to all women aged 18 to 60 years. But citing lack of funds, the transfer of money to the women’s accounts has been stopped for now.
-The sixth promise was to build a mobile health clinic. But no such clinic has been built yet.
-Congress had promised to extend the license of taxis for 15 years. Work has not been done on this yet.
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