Uproarious scenes in Himachal Pradesh Assembly

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes on Thursday as members of the ruling and opposition camps engaged in a heated exchange on the issue of non-payment to contractors of the Public Works Department and the Jal Shakti Department.

Raising a supplementary query, BJP member Randhir Sharma alleged that the government has imposed a cut in these departments' budget and payments to contractors have not been made, drawing a sharp retort from the chief minister.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that no payment has been stopped and asked the BJP legislator to give information in this regard.

Unsatisfied with the reply of the chief minister, the BJP members created a ruckus alleging that the state government was concealing information and left the House.

The chief minister said that during the last quarter of 2022-23, Rs 171 crore of PWD and Rs 143 crore of Jal Shakti Department remained unspent and accused the BJP of running away from the debate.

Later talking to mediapersons outside the Assembly, Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur accused the state government of misleading the House and asserted that payments to contractors of the two departments have been stopped and as a result, labourers have not been paid wages and development works have been hit.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)