Shimla, Feb 22,
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh announced an increase in the salary of senior resident doctors from Rs. 33,000 to Rs. 40,000, along with a Rs. 500 hike in the honorarium of outsource employees in the public works department. Additionally, a new tunnel would be built between Navbahar to IGMC, and Rs. 25 crore would be provided to lay ducts for cables in Shimla town to remove the menace of overhead cables and wires.
Opposition BJP staged a walkout from the house when the chief minister was giving a reply in the house.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that presenting the budget estimates on Feb 17 was a herculean task given the worst economic situation. It was very hard to disburse the state’s resources to every section of society. He said that the Central government did not help the state with a single penny during the natural disaster in the 2023 monsoon rains. The CM accused the Central government of ignoring the people of the state in hard times and released Rs. 486 crore on account of State Disaster Relief funds. When the CM mentioned that the Leader of the Opposition was urged by him to raise the issue of central assistance for Monsoon-affected people, he started calling off the Monsoon session. However, the Leader of Opposition and other BJP members disrupted the chief minister, claiming they never asked for the special session in the midst of rain fury. The chief minister said that he would present the clippings of the newspaper in which the BJP leader demanded the special session, but all agitated BJP MLAs staged a walkout.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that they are trying to defend the BJP government at the centre, whereas it is a fact that the state only received Rs. 486 crore of SDRF. CM explained that the union government announced Rs. 686 crore but deducted Rs. 200 crore of the state’s share. He said that even kids broke their piggy banks, but the opposition BJP and Central Government were doing politics in times of crisis. They were hailed by the World Bank and BJP leader Shanta Kumar, but BJP members did not stand with the affected people.
He said that after four months of crisis, the Congress government received support from the people regarding the budget estimates as it was inclusive in nature. In 14 months, every section of society is yearning for the Government. He said that BJP members are accusing the government of the issue of 817 posts code employment. The advertisement for the posts was announced in September 2020, and written and type tests were conducted. The evaluation of the tests is difficult since candidates of the 807 code also attended the tests, of which papers were leaked during BJP rule. The SC has given the ruling on the basis of examinations and said that the test was valid. The council of ministers also formed a subcommittee on the matter, and efforts are being made to issue letters of appointment to candidates soon.
But the technical issue before the state is that candidates of other post codes also appeared in 817 codes who are also involved in other paper leak cases. The analysis of the rules and law is necessary after the SC order to discuss the issue which was not before the court. A subcommittee was constituted, and the report is being evaluated. Code 817 candidates are already under consideration, and we are trying to sort out the issue to give them the appointment, and the government is sensitive to the issue. Sukhu said that the payment of dues of the 6th pay commission is due from January 1, 2016. Rs. 543 crore has been released as IRA by the government to the employees. He said that Rs. 1,306 crore pension gratuity and leave encashment would be released from March this year before the enforcement of the Lok Sabha election code and conduct.
We are not extending the benefit to employees to gain political benefits, but we have to utilize their services for the development of the state. He said that the government deferred the decision of providing 300 free units to the people at the request of State Electricity Board employees and officers. He said that employees said that a number of high-income group people are also getting the benefit of 125 units of free power, and the government would consider removing such people from the beneficiaries who are paying income tax.
Defending the allegations of the state’s indebtedness, the Chief Minister said that this government took a loan of Rs. 14,000 crore, but Rs. 6,000 crore belonged to the previous government, which was utilized by this government.
He said that the provision of increasing diet money of the police to Rs. 1,000 per month was made from Rs. 250 per month. No school scheme in the former prime minister’s name would be changed. In Dharampur, the Atal Adarsh School was already there. The school is not properly ready. We would run the Atal Adarsh School scheme, and a new Rajiv Gandhi Boarding School would be opened in every assembly on the subdivision level. The ranking of education came down to 8th place during the tenure of the previous government, but the Education Minister burned the midnight oil to improve the quality of education. The Chief Minister said that every constituency would have either Rajiv Gandhi new day boarding schools or Adarsh Vidyalayas.
He said that the state got an increase in revenue from liquor vending. This government’s transparency in excise policy helped the state to get Rs. 400 crore increased in one year, along with Rs. 116 crore milk cess. We made many reforms to increase revenue growth. I am stating that the state would become self-dependent by 2027 and financially the best independent state by 2030.
The Congress government is buying cow dung for Rs. 3 per kg; however, farmers are not coming forward. To fill up new 17,600 posts, advertisements were made. In five years, it would be more than one lakh. We also promised it to the private and government sectors. The state has only 2.50 lakh employees and could not provide jobs to one lakh employment in government sectors immediately. The benefit of the government scheme is reaching the last person in the row of society.
The budget discussion lasted for 22 hours, with 27 BJP and 25 Congress party members taking part.
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