BJP: Himachal govt not giving satisfactory replies

Heated exchanges were witnessed in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly during the question hour on Thursday as the BJP accused the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government of not giving satisfactory replies to the questions asked by them.

This verbal attack was made by BJP after deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that “information is being collected” in reply to a question of Ashish Sharma (BJP) regarding disbursement of funds by Kangra Central Cooperative Bank to Mahila Mandals in Dehra Assembly constituency in the months of June and July 2024.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the reply, Ashish Sharma, said that getting information in the digital era was not difficult and added that he has information that ₹50,000 were released to many Mahila Mandals between June 1 to July 10, 2024, by the Bank. He sought an answer to whether the money was disbursed during the code of conduct or not and said that if it was distributed, a probe should be conducted by the central agencies.

Leader of the Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, joined in to accuse the government of trying to conceal the information on the pretext that “information is being collected”. Thakur also questioned if the grants were released to Mahila Mandals in Dehra only or in other places also and asked whether or not the government would provide information during the current session of the assembly.

Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania who had earlier asked Ashish Sharma to place the information collected by him on the table of the house and said that the Vidhan Sabha secretariat would investigate it.

Later the BJP members left the House and raised slogans outside the house. While talking to media representatives, Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, said, “Now even after seeking information in the House, the government is lying. In the name of collecting information, the government is also misleading the House”.