Sukhu Government did not restore OPS after three month being in power: Jai Ram Thakur

 Leader of Opposition in Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur blamed the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government for not restoring the Old pension scheme promised by the Congress before the assembly election after being in power for three months. Participating in the Budget discussion presented by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on March 17, 223 Mr Thakur said that Rs 800 crore of New Pension scheme would not be released to Government of Himachal Pradesh by Centre and concerned authority as the corpus could be refunded to beneficiary employees one time basis. He said that the Government has a lot of liabilities and restoring OPS is a bitter pill for the Sukh Government to swallow. He said that employees are being cheated now as the government is still engaged in framing of SOPs for the OPS. He said that the Center would release Rs 8098 Crore as Fiscal Deficit grant to Himachal Pradesh for which the state should extend thanks to the Modi Government in the center. He said that GST compensatory grants have been withdrawn by the center to all states as it was only for the period of 2017-22 only. He said that the previous Government had projected Rs 13297 Crore for the salary of employees however this government did not increase the expenditure of Salaries as it would be around Rs 14000 crore. Mr Thakur said that the present government should emphasize the hydropower policy however the new government is trying to give more impetus on the solar power for which land is not available in Himachal Pradesh. He said that a number of companies which  were interested in setting up the Solar plants during the previous Government could not get the suitable lands made flight to Bikaner and Hoshiyarpur. He said that the government has proposed the investment to local youth for setting up solar and charging units, however  budget documents reflect no outlay for the purpose. He defended the previous government for taking  whooping debt to run the government stating that previous BJP rule took only 21997 Crore total debt in the last five years however with the present budget estimated this government would take Rs 10000 in the very first years. During the previous government per annum debt of the government did not exceed to Rs 4000 Crore however the present government would borrow two and half times more than the previous Government. He said that total borrowing did not increase above 69600 Cr however present government was trying to blame it for taking whooping debt of Rs 75400 Crore which is not fact He said that when BJP government came in power in 2017 it has inherited total borrowing of tune Rs 47906 Crore from the previous Government. He said that the Planning commission has announced funds for the construction of Mandi greenfield airports, also mentioned in the budget speech of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Jai Ram Thakur said that the state government has announced to start a Nursing college with all the Medical colleges which was already declared by the Union Government to strengthen the medical colleges in the entire country. He said that it is not feasible to equip all the medical college hospitals  with PAT Scan which is not possible given the resources required for this facility. Mr Jai Ram said that budget documents did not supplement the financial provisions therefore it is mere announcement. He said that the Congress government befooled the woman as it announced 21.50 lakh women to provide Rs 1500 pension, however the budget speech mentioned Rs 350 to 500 to 2.50 lakh women. He said that Rs 3600 crore would be required to complete the Guarantee of  Rs 1500 to all the women between the age group of 18 to 60 yrs.