Shimla: The Budget session of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha, which will commence on March 10, is likely to be stormy as the BJP is geared up to corner the Congress government over issues like rising drug addiction, deteriorating law and order and the grim financial health of the state.
The 16-day Budget session will start with the Address of Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla on March 10 while Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the Budget for 2025-26 on March 17. Both Congress and BJP will chalk out their strategies at their legislature party meetings here tomorrow..
MLAs cutting across party lines are likely to raise the issue of rising drug addiction among youth. A spurt in the number of deaths due to alleged drug overdose in the recent past has become a cause for concern.
The BJP is accusing the government of keeping the Budget session short with fewer sittings. Other issues that can be raised in the Assembly include the use of temple money for government schemes, delay in the payment of salaries and pension, failure of the government to create employment opportunities, the closure of institutions and discrimination in the allocation of development funds to the Assembly constituencies represented by BJP legislators.
The Congress, on the other hand, will try to turn the tables on the BJP by accusing the Central Government of discriminating against Himachal. The Chief Minister has time and again said that Himachal was not getting its due and Rs 9,002 crore of Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) due from the Central Government for damages suffered during the monsoon disaster in 2023 was still awaited.
The Congress had promised to create five lakh jobs but its government has decided not to fill 1.50 lakh posts and removed more than 10,000 outsourced employees from service,” said Thakur. He added that government employees and pensioners were not getting their salaries and pension on time.
He took exception to the state government for not sanctioning many welfare schemes like Himcare and Sahara, depriving needy and economically weaker sections of the benefit of free treatment in government hospitals.
“The Vidhan Sabha secretariat has so far received 963 queries from the MLAs, including 737 starred and 226 unstarred. Besides, requests for 24 debates under various rules have been received,” said Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.
