Chief Minister Shri Virbhadra Singh, who was addressing a public meeting at Amb in district Una today, said that though a lot was being spent on my court cases as falsely framed by the BJP, but I am a man who will not be belittled by their villainous moves. He said that it was true that he was ‘tired but will fight to the nefarious designs of the BJP and oppose their every move till the end’. Though I am tired but not defeated, he said adding that the BJP should forget, rather should never think of defeating me even in their dreams. I am waiting for the moment when the judiciary of the country will honourably acquit me of all fabricated cases as framed against me by the opponents.
He said that the propaganda being aired by the BJP was nothing more than a bundle of lies. Now, when elections were around the corner, the BJP was countering the development by involving in character assassination. Their modus operandi was to attack the leader of the Congress party whom they fear the most, but they are forgetting that Congress was a party of soldiers and there was no dearth of good leaders in the party. Now, the BJP was targeting me and I want to send a message to the Prime Minister and the State BJP leaders that ShriVirbhadra Singh was not afraid of their modus operandi, no matter they may frame several false cases against me, said the Chief Minister.
Referring to the Rs. 922 crore Swan River Channelisation, he said that the work on channelization of Swan and its 73 tributaries was still in progress, but there had been inordinate delay due to shortage of funds. The funds were held up by the centre despite several requests. In the first year, the cost of the project was Rs 330 crore, out which the state was to contribute Rs 99 crore while the remaining was to be contributed by the Union Ministry for Water Resources. A sum of Rs 189.351 crore had been released by the central government since the commissioning of the project and now the centre had released a little amount more, he said.
He announced upgradation of civil hospital Amb to 50 bed.
MLA Chintpurni and Chairman State Finance Commission Kuldeep Kumar said that the purpose of this rally was to express the gratitude to the Chief Minister for the massive development undertaken in his Assembly. He said more than 60 percent of drinking water problems had been solved during the last almost five years. He thanked for two degree colleges opened in his Assembly segment which had benefitted the girl child most. He also counted the number of health and other education institutions opened in the state, besides other works.
State Co-incharge of Congress and Secretary AICC Smt. Ranjeeta Ranjan, while addressing the gathering said that the people should stand united for ‘Mission Repeat’. She said that nowadays, the ‘Topi’(cap episode) was being blown out of proportion by few BJP adding that the respect was given and earned and not shown by actions. I have never seen the Himachal Chief Minister without a cap, and the people in BJP, who were flaring the issue, I think, have never gone beyond such issue and this shows their narrow mindedness.
She said the GST which was proposed by UPA was 14 percent, whereas the GST as imposed upon the people of the country comes out to 46 percent. She blamed the Prime Minister for decline of two percent in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). She also slammed the NDA led by Prime Minister for rise in petroleum prices. As of today the price of crude oil when has dropped by 18 cents, i.e.$54.86 per barrel which is Rs 120 per litre or so in Indian currency, and the people of the country were getting petrol ranging at maximum of Rs. 80. As compared to the prices of crude oil which was as high as Rs 135 per litre in Indian currency during the UPA regime but it was given the petrol at rate ranging between Rs. 68 and Rs 72.
Industries Minister Shri Mukesh Agnihotri, former MLA Shri Ganesh Dutt Bharwal, District Congress President Shri Virendra Dharmani, Secretary PCC Shri Vivek Sharma, Chairperson Zila Parishad Smt. Soma Bharwal, BCC President Master Pritam were also present on the occasion amongst others.
