RailEnquiry

SHIMLA: Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today defended the decision of the previous BJP government to give land on lease to Yoga guru Ramdev near Sadhupul in Solan district saying there was no violation of any law in the process.Initiating the debate on budget for 2013-14 presented by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the house on March 14, Dhumal said that the revenue department in violation of section 118 of Tenancy and Land Reforms Act had allowed land on lease to Tibetan refugees for a period of 50 years in the previous tenure of Singh as CM.Condemning the cancellation of land leased out to Ramdev at Sadhupul at prevailing market price, Dhumal termed it was not in the interest of the state."No rule was violated by the previous BJP government in granting lease in favour of Patanjali Yogapeeth and it was in the interest of the farmers as the yoga guru had assured that fifteen types of herbs and shrubs produced by them would be procured for manufacturing medicines and also the entire apple concentrate of HPMC would be purchased by the Yogapeeth."The government was free to order any inquiry if any rule or law had been violated," he said.Dhumal alleged that the actual allocation for various sectors have been reduced in the Rs 21,768 crore budget for 2013-14 which was marginally higher by Rs 1,523 crore (seven per cent) as compare to last year's budget and not sufficient even to neutralise the inflation.

Dhumal claimed the budget was increased by 16.88 per cent from Rs 17,327 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 20,244 crore in 2012-13 and said hike in budget was not sufficient even to give three per cent annual increment to employees and wipe out the impact of inflation which was hovering around ten per cent.

He said that outlay of Rs 4,100 crore for annual plan for 2013-14 was the projected figure given in the budget while the planning was yet to finalise the annual plan.

The government claimed 33 per cent of the budget has been earmarked for the social welfare but it has not been increased if compared to previous year, he said.

The budget lacked proper financial management and the receipts have been projected on higher side as compared to the expenditure, Dhumal said.

Dhumal flayed the Himachal government for replacing the unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 per moths with Skill Development allowance.

The government was also trying to create confusion by raising the grant in aid to Parent Teacher Association (PTA) teachers, for which the previous BJP government had given a grant of Rs 3 crore for PTA teachers, Dhumal, the leader of Opposition in state assembly said.

There was no provision for extension of railways in the state, he said.

He urged the government to reconsider the proposal to give award of Rs 5 lakh to stray cattle free gram panchayat announced in the budget and said that it would trigger an unhealthy practice of pushing the stray animals from one area to another for getting the prize money.

Dhumal also hit out the government for changing the names of government schemes, large scale reshuffle and transfer of officials and relocating offices but welcomed the move to open new offices and sub-divisions.