Himachal assembly: Oppn stages walkout after government says there’re no pending payment of contractors

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India]: The opposition staged a walkout on the fourth day of the monsoon session of the assembly on Thursday when the government replied that there was no pending payment of contractors.

Opposition MLA Randhir Sharma raised the issue of pending payment of contractors in the House, on which CM Sukhwinder Singh said that no contractor’s payment is pending.

The opposition accused the government of giving false figures and misleading.

They started sloganeering inside the House and later staged a walkout from the House proceedings.

“After the formation of the Congress government, the government has stopped the payment of contractors due to which the working class is facing troubles. The government has made payment to some selected contractors while payment has not been made to some contractors deliberately. When the opposition raised the issue in the House, the Chief Minister was misleading the House by giving wrong information, which the opposition could not tolerate, hence the opposition walked out of the proceedings of the House”, Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur said.
Meanwhile, On the opposition’s allegations, Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh said “The previous BJP government had given contracts worth about Rs 700 crore to its “favourite” contractors before the elections and now the onus is on the Congress government to cover up the malpractice done by the previous government”.

“They are making allegations. The government will investigate these contracts and the work found correctly will be paid for, but the irregularities committed for the personal benefit of the BJP will not be covered up, they will be investigated”, he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding the Union government to declare destruction caused by recent heavy rains in the state as a “national disaster.”

The Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu moved the resolution Under rule 102 on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly for discussion.
The resolution was passed with a voice vote in the Assembly on Wednesday.

It is worth mentioning that the state has incurred a loss of Rs. 12000 crores in rain-induced calamities during the monsoon this year so far, as per an official statement.