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Seven decades of Cong rule jeopardised national interest of HP: Jai Ram

Seven decades of Cong rule jeopardised national interest of HP: Jai Ram

Shimla, May 16 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday alleged that during the last seven decades, the majority of which Congress was in power here, the financial interests of this backward hill state had been jeopardised, at the behest of neighbouring powerful states.
Addressing a number of election meetings in Mandi Parliamentary constituency at Mandi and Kangra districts on Tuesday, Mr Thakur lamented that the gigantic hydel power projects BSL and Bhakra Dam were constructed by the BBMB, in which Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were made the beneficiary states.
They yielded daily income of crores of rupees to the beneficiary states, while the entire projects were financed by the Centre, in the shape of loans and subsidies.
Ironically, grave injustice was done to HP, on the soil of which these mega projects had been built and were based on the waters of perennial rivers of this hill state. This state was a small Union Territory, without any political say.
As a UT, it was governed by the Lt Governor and all officials were of beneficiary states. Nowhere in the world such cruelty or travesty of injustice had been perpetrated with the people of the same country, he regretted.
For this, Congress alone is responsible and he appealed to the highlanders not to give a single seat to Congress in the coming elections.
In his short tenure as Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee had granted special status to HP, but the economically rich adjoining states got it withdrawn through the then Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He made a passionate call to the people of Himachal to teach Congress a lession for doing injustice to this backward state.
Mr Thakur further said that BJP is depending on Modi wave and going from village to village and personally contacting voters telling the people about the ushering in of a new era of honesty and prosperity without any scam reported, so far.
Meanwhile, the top Congress leaders brought from different places by Pt Sukh Ram, are camping in panoramic and pleasant places like Shimla and the surrounding valleys, as if they have come to enjoy some picnic.
Their pictures sitting on the sprawling lawns of five-star hotels, are appearing in the columns of all newspapers. They seem to be unmindful of the defeat or victory of Congress. They seem to have taken the victory of BJP for granted, he added.
Congress seems to have been fragmented into groups of individuals of leaders, owing allegiance to former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh or any other person.
Mr Virbhadra, Pt Sukh Ram and others are known to all in the state. Obviously, they are not happy over the grant of Congress ticket to Ashray, the grandson of Sukh Ram. It appears the victory of BJP candidate Pt Ram Swarup Sharma seems to be a foregone conclusion, he claimed.
UNI XC ML RJ 1456

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