Himachal having financial crunch, facing trouble to return upfront money 

Amid deep financial crunch empty public exchequer of Himachal Pradesh and spending beyond the largesse now Sukhu government posing the imminent challenges facing more financial trouble soon.  The Corporate houses whose not only put a new Political challenge before Sukhu government to sail smoothly in its very new term but it was legally bound to return thousands of crores to private companies and big corporate houses. These houses are not only making big bargaining before the government to maximize their profits in cement plants, hydropower projects, Four lane and transmission line but going to more harsher step like arbitrary increased in the prices of its products, shutdown productions and withdrawals from Corporate social responsibility (CSR). State government is going to face another financial traps as it have to own liabilities of previous governments and payback the hundreds thousands of rupees taken inform of advances and upfront money from these Corporate houses to abortive investment in power projects. Without realizing instabilities in the power market before Ukraine war state government signed money MOU and taken upfront money in advance for many hydropower projects. Now there may be more than dozens of petitions are pending in the courts to return the above money. During Jai Ram Thakur Government and Now Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu orders of the arbitration courts are coming against the government. According to highly placed sources in the Government public coffers of the Sukhu government may be bleeds further as liabilities  may deteriorate financial health. Most recently in the latest decision, retired Supreme Court Justice Deepak Gupta, while giving his verdict on the 260 MW Yangthang hydroelectric power project as an arbitrator, has ordered the government to return Rs 60 crore as upfront money to the company implementing the project. Along with this, orders have also been given to return the interest. The project was to be set up on Spiti river in Kinnaur district. But the company which was supposed to install it backed out and the government forfeited the upfront money as per the provisions of the contract. But the company filed a case before the arbitrator and the arbitrator has ordered the government to return Rs 60 crore. Similarly, in the case of Sally hydroelectric project, the arbitrator has ordered the government to return the upfront money. The biggest difficulty in front of the government, which is facing financial crisis and is getting all its work done by taking loans, is that it will have to deposit this amount along with challenging the decision of the arbitrator in the High Court. In the case of Uhl Hydroelectric Project, instead of the upfront money of 9 crores, the government had to deposit 36 ​​crores in the High Court. There is no investigation as to why all this happened, who is responsible for it. Neither the responsibility of the bureaucrats is fixed nor that of the leaders. All the opposition parties are silent on all these issues. Earlier, in Jairam Government, Himachal Pradesh High court had passed similar order in favor of Adani Power to return upfront money Rs 280 crores to Adani Power in case of Jangi Thopan project, Tata Power and A Company of Singapore have been ordered to return Rs 48 crores in case of Chamba’s Duggar hydropower project and more than a dozen cases are with the Arbitrator.   The Government managers are countering the argument of debt Criss by put it logically Infront of other hill state and well-off states. If Government couldn’t fight legal battle in the court as decision are coming against it one after another state coffer  will be empty by returning the upfront money of dozens of private companies, including companies of the country’s big industrialists Adani and Tata group, who have come to set up hydropower projects in the state.  .  But no one’s responsibility has been fixed as to why such a situation has arisen.  Neither of the bureaucrats nor of the Chief Ministers and Ministers who were in power till now. Sukhu government sought or invite public suggestions to improve the state resources in coming budget. However Government was still relying on same old status quoist bureaucracy which was responsible for financial mess of Rs 74000 Crore public debt and Rs 6500 Crore and spelling dooms on the previous Government. Why Government did not show guts to also fixed the accountability on the red tapeism bureaucracy moreover trust them more. Now Sukhu’s bureaucracy could take such Corporate houses head on which have hundreds of Crore recovery for example Corporate house running  five star hotel Wildflowers. The Arbitration was awarded recently in favor of Government. Thousands of crores are to be awarded by Supreme Court of India on account of Reorganization of Punjab and state share in many Power project conceived before formation of Himachal Pradesh. Could Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government have political maturity or state bureaucracy to wage battle with Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to return the state share on account of national arbitration cases pending for disposal. Now it is note worthy, are pending cases government has any action to fight legal battle, presently answer is no.  In such a situation, how the treasury of the government could be saved if government is even not privy to such challenges. The state of financial mismanagement could only be guess.  The most surprising thing is that neither there is any review in the cabinet nor any sub-committees are formed on these issues.  Nor do these matters go to the committees of the assembly.