After fighting a war of words for a long time, ruling Congress and opposition BJP in Himachal Pradesh have now decided to have an open debate on the issue of poor financial condition of the state.
Congress chief spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Pathania had challenged BJP MLA and general secretary Randhir Sharma to counter the Congress claim in a public debate, while the latter accepted on Sunday. Pathania said that it was not Congress but BJP which caused annual burden of over Rs 1,200 crore on the state exchequer on the eve of the state assembly elections, liability for which was being discharged by the present government and now instead of accepting the mistakes BJP was targeting the Congress government.
"As of today Randhir Sharma is talking of excess expenditure. Will he tell me what the situation was during the BJP regime when people who had never contested elections were made chairmen in HRTC, forest corporation, HIMUDA and other boards." Pathania said while referring to recent statement of BJP leader accusing the Congress government of wasting money on making political appointments.
Accepting the challenge, Randhir Sharma said BJP was ready for this and now Congress should inform about the date and venue according to their convenience. "The open debate challenge is a welcome step as the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues have been avoiding the issue for last two years," he said.
He said that BJP had been demanding a white paper on financial condition of the state but the government ignored their demand. He said the government was even shying away from discussing the issue in the assembly.
Source: Times of India
Congress chief spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Pathania had challenged BJP MLA and general secretary Randhir Sharma to counter the Congress claim in a public debate, while the latter accepted on Sunday. Pathania said that it was not Congress but BJP which caused annual burden of over Rs 1,200 crore on the state exchequer on the eve of the state assembly elections, liability for which was being discharged by the present government and now instead of accepting the mistakes BJP was targeting the Congress government.
"As of today Randhir Sharma is talking of excess expenditure. Will he tell me what the situation was during the BJP regime when people who had never contested elections were made chairmen in HRTC, forest corporation, HIMUDA and other boards." Pathania said while referring to recent statement of BJP leader accusing the Congress government of wasting money on making political appointments.
Accepting the challenge, Randhir Sharma said BJP was ready for this and now Congress should inform about the date and venue according to their convenience. "The open debate challenge is a welcome step as the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues have been avoiding the issue for last two years," he said.
He said that BJP had been demanding a white paper on financial condition of the state but the government ignored their demand. He said the government was even shying away from discussing the issue in the assembly.
Source: Times of India
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