Rejecting BJP leader and Union minister Anurag Thakur's charge that the Himachal Pradesh government is borrowing money to indulge in lavish expenditure, two state ministers on Monday said the loan was taken to repay the liabilities left behind by the previous BJP dispensation.
In a joint statement, Education Minister Rohit Thakur and Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh asked Anurag Thakur to first point his finger at the previous BJP government which crossed all limits of borrowing from the Centre.
The Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government has taken a loan to repay the liabilities of the Jai Ram Thakur government, which has left the state crushing under the whopping debt of Rs 75,000 crore, they claimed.
The ministers accused the previous BJP government of financial mismanagement and wasteful expenditure that derailed the economy of the state.
The BJP central leadership boasted of Himachal being a second home to them, but they utterly failed to get the special package for the state to benefit the people, the ministers said.
They claimed the previous government at the fag end of its tenure announced the opening and up-gradation of over 920 institutions in the state with an eye on the elections.
The state would require about Rs 5,000 crore for the smooth functioning of these institutions but the previous government did not make a monetary provision for the proper functioning of these offices, they added.
The ministers alleged all these institutions were opened and upgraded with the sole motive of wooing voters without any budgetary provision.
It was due to the unmindful and unproductive expenditure of the BJP dispensation that the present state government has been forced to take the loan, they said.
Addressing an event earlier, Union minister Thakur accused the Himachal Pradesh government of borrowing money to indulge in lavish expenditure.