Corruption to be main poll plank in HP Assembly polls: Dhumal

Corruption and "anti-Himachal" decisions taken by the UPA government would be the main poll planks for the ruling BJP in the state in the assembly polls, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Wednesday said.

Dhumal gave a list of "anti-Himachal" decisions taken by the Centre and said in spite of non-cooperative attitude of the UPA government, Himachal has made rapid strides in all sectors.

"Himachal has been denied special financial assistance, industrial package was terminated prematurely, the railway line expansion projects made no headway, food and kerosene quota under PDS was reduced and step-motherly treatment was meted out by the 13th Finance Commission to the state," he said.

Dhumal denied Congress accusations that the BJP government was taking credit for centrally-sponsored schemes and said some of the flagship programmes like Atal Free School uniform scheme, Atal Bijli Bachat Yojana, Pt Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojana and Doodh Ganga Yojana were conceptualised and implemented by the state government and had these been centrally sponsored schemes, the Congress-ruled states would have been in the forefront.

Lashing out at the Congress for making false allegations and misleading the people by giving unverified facts, Dhumal said the entire expenditure on Atal School Uniform Yojana and Atal Bijli Yojana was met by the state government and the Centre had no role in these popular schemes.

Refuting the charge of the Congress that the state government has failed to utilise plan funds, Dhumal said it was other way round and plan funds were not spent and plan size was reduced during the Congress government while plan size was increased by 39 per cent during the BJP ruled and the government spent about Rs 1,800 crore more than the sanctioned plan funds during the eleventh plan.

Ridiculing the Congress claim of exposing corruption during the BJP rule, chief minister said it was a typical case of "kettle calling the pot black" and said the people of the country are well aware that corruption broke all records during the UPA regime.

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