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After heavy rains caused it Landslides and flash floods wreaked havoc In the hill state, former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur lashed out at the Congress-governed state government saying the action taken by the current administration to manage the monsoon disaster leaves a lot to be desired. The Leader of the Opposition in the HP Legislative Assembly has opened up to Rakhi Gaja about the burning issue, among other things.
After recent heavy rains and floods, Himachal Pradesh is in a state of crisis, how do you communicate with the masses?
I am visiting different parts of Mandi, especially those areas where the damage is greatest. In Mandi district alone, seven bridges were swept away by rain-induced floods. These bridges connected the people of Mandi circuit with Siraj, Darang and Banjar circuits. The loss is colossal. We are here to reach the masses. I visited the markets and houses that were hit by the rain in my circle (Sirraj district of Mandi district). I can understand people’s pain and am here with my party to help them. People are without electricity and water in many areas yet.
Don’t you think that the center should intervene and provide immediate relief to the state given the level of damage in the state? CM (Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu) has gone on record saying that such heavy rains and ensuing damage have not been seen in the last 50 years.
There is no doubt that the damage is great, as I said earlier, too. The central government always helps the states in disaster management, but for that the state government has to complete its assessment of the total loss and send a report to the center and accordingly the funds are released by the union government. In the first place, the state government needs to act quickly and handle the situation on its own. This is a hill condition and one has to be prepared to deal with such natural disasters.
Is the state dealing with the situation efficiently?
never. It’s a complete mess. In a country like ours, every calendar year there are three meetings on monsoon and state readiness. The Prime Minister, Minister of Revenue, Minister of Persons with Disabilities and Ministers of Water Resources participate in these meetings. However, this year, no such pre-monsoon meeting of the state government was held which shows the lack of seriousness of part of the current exemption. The state government was aware of the heavy rain forecast, but had not issued any travel warning to tourists.
As a result, hundreds of tourists are now stuck in several areas of the state and most of them are unable to contact their family members in the absence of mobile phone network and electricity connections. I haven’t found any organized database of stranded tourists in the state yet. Ideally, legal warnings should be given to tourists as to which areas are safe for them to travel. During our rule (BJP government system), we used to circulate the do’s and don’ts of hotels so that the tourists would be aware of the situation in the state.
How do you evaluate the performance of the Congress government?
This government has the worst governing record. It has stopped almost all development projects. In our constituency alone, the Rs 200 crore projects started during our tenure have stalled. The country has never seen such a chaotic situation. I have signified over 1,000 organizations promoted or announced during my tenure as CM. These include health institutions, revenue offices, ancillary facilities, etc. Of those, 50 were in my same constituency.
When the BJP government took over in 2017, we did not cancel any of the projects announced by former Congress Virbhadra Singh. He had announced the establishment of 21 colleges at the end of his reign. Instead we implemented those projects. Development should never stop even if there is a change in the situation after the ballot.
What are 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 percent, which meant that about 37,000 votes were responsible for the changing of the guard. I think Congress’s promise to implement the old pension system played an important role in the poll results. In addition, the BJP insurgents played a corrupting sport.
In many seats, we were ahead in EVM votes but lost after counting postal ballot votes for government employees. We lost nearly eight seats, by a margin of less than 1,000 votes. We have to remember that the proportion of the population in Himachal Pradesh has the highest number of government employees in the entire country. However, the employees are now 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 the staff is more confused now that OPS has not been implemented properly yet.
Don’t you think the BJP should have taken the OPS app announcement seriously?
Such decisions or announcements cannot be made in isolation. BJP is in government in 18 states and therefore any declaration made by one state will have repercussions in other states. It also has huge financial implications. The current Congress government is already in financial difficulty because it has recently been unable to pay more than 15,000 civil servants on time. I fired more than 10,000 outside employees. Except for OPS, it has failed to even talk about other reconnaissance safeguards so far. I borrowed a loan of Rs 8,000 crore in the first seven months itself while we took a loan of Rs 5,000 crore only in the first two years of our tenure.
How is the party preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections?
These days we celebrate nine years of Modi’s rule. In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi factor will work again. The equations during the Lok Sabha polls will be different. The fans are clear about their choice. The country is secure under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. India is fortunate to have such a leader who glorifies the country globally. “The country needs Narendra Modi(The country needs Narendra Modi.) The party took into account the rebel factor and other causes that were responsible for the defeat. They have a lot of differences just seven months after the formation of the government.
Do you have any plans to contest the Lok Sabha elections?
I don’t have plans. So now I am the Leader of the Opposition in Vidhan Sabha. I will continue to work to strengthen the party’s base in the hill state.
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