Shimla: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Himachal Pradesh for ignoring the interests of the people. He, however, avoided any mention of corruption.
The prime minister, in his 20-minute speech, expressed annoyance over the state government taking credit for all the central schemes by changing their names to get political mileage. Holding his first assembly election rally in Una town, some 200 km from here, Manmohan Singh said the BJP government had not done much for the state, which shared a close link with the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The Nehru-Gandhi family has a bondage with Himachal Pradesh and did a lot for it, he said. Manmohan Singh said whatever development work was undertaken in the state in the past eight years, it was all due to the liberal financial support extended by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
He said Himachal Pradesh had made tremendous progress under Congress governments but development suffered during the BJP rule. The BJP government has not done any development work in the past five years. If Congress returns to power in the state, it will bring it (development) back on track, he said.
Himachal Pradesh needed new direction for accelerating development, he said, and the Congress alone could give impetus to development and ensure that the benefits reached target groups, he added.
He said the BJP government had failed to take benefit of the central schemes but tried to claim credit for them by changing their names.
In all-important scheme like MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), in the past five years, the state government has utilised only 56 percent of the total funding by the centre. In the last three years, he said, the UPA government increased financial assistance to the state by 30 percent.
If the Congress government comes to power in the state, it will have better coordination with the UPA at the centre and the state would be given its due, he said. Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls Nov 4. (IANS)
