Opposition protested and staged a walk out from the house
Opposition Congress party today staged a walk-out before resorting to walk out on handing over tourism properties to private houses in the state and blamed the state government for the entire mess.
Opposition Congress leader Mr Mukesh Agnihotri said the Convention Centre built by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation in Mandi district was handed over to private houses which was built up on the loan from Asian Development Bank.
He said that Rs 2,095 Cr loans are recently being announced to be sanctioned by the central Government to also develop similar Public assets. “If the Govt wanted to sell out the public property to private individuals ,why has it been built up at all?” the Congress leader asked.
Ruling party members did not allow Mr. Agnihotri to complete his point of order and both the benches shouted slogans against each other.
All Congress Members came to the well of the house and shouted slogans disrupting the proceeding and later staged a walk-out.
Jal Shakti Minister, Mohinder Singh Thakur said that HPTDC properties were being leased out after verifying the fact that most of the tourism properties were lying idle and a number of hospitality units were not able to run in the Country .
He said that the Congress had handed over a five star HPTDC hotel ( Wildflowers hall) to a private house which caused immense loss as not a single penny came to government coffers earlier.
He defended the action of Jai Ram Thakur Government to lease out the property to private houses stating that Convention Centre built up in Mandi and Janjayli are built up under ADB funds which was not only loan but grant of ADB .
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said that Congress government and UPA government led by Mr Manmohan Singh came out with PPP and BOOT mode of handing over to the private and state now opposition Congress is opposing the move.
