Congress did not understand historical facts before giving the statement: Dhumal
Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, said through a press release that he was surprised to read the statement given by the government in which it mentioned the anti-Himachal mentality of the BJP. It seems that before giving the statement, historical facts were not considered. was not understood and that is why this statement has been made contrary to the facts. To make the people of the country aware of the facts, the entire matter must be brought before the people in detail.
Punjab was reorganized on November 1, 1966, out of which Haryana became a new state and the hilly region was merged into Himachal, at that time there was a Congress government at the Centre. Under the Punjab Re-Organization Act, 1966, a law passed in the Parliament, the state received assets and liabilities equal to the population that went to the state based on reorganization.
At that time, Congress was in power in the country and all the three states, but sadly, when Bhakra Dam and other projects were being distributed, the Chief Minister or ministers of Himachal government did not attend any meeting, as a result Himachal’s claim remained weak.
Prof. Dhumal said that Bharatiya Janata Party itself raised the question of royalty and Himachal’s share in power projects. Regarding their demands, Adhikar Yatra was taken out from Himachal to Delhi in which representatives from Panchayat Samiti to Parliament participated. Former Chief Minister Shri Shanta Kumar ji was the leader of the legislative party. Adhikar Yatra was organized under his leadership. I was the state president of the party at that time.
In Delhi we staged a dharna with our demands and our national leaders respected Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, Lal Krishna Advani ji, Krishna Lal Sharma ji etc. also participated in the dharna, addressed us and BJP fully supported our demands at the national level. Did .
This issue of getting our share of 12 percent free electricity was also raised by Shri Shanta Kumar ji when he was the Chief Minister and was supported by the then Union Energy Minister Shri Kalpanath Rai. The credit for providing royalty to Himachal also goes to the BJP leadership.
In 1995, Chief Minister Shri Virbhadra Singh had decided to file a case in the Supreme Court for its share on behalf of the Himachal Government. This case remained pending in the court for years. After returning to power in 2008, I held several meetings to take prompt action and appointed the best lawyers to represent the state in the Supreme Court. After a lot of hard work, the efforts of our lawyers and officials were successful. In September 2012, the decision of the Supreme Court came in favor of Himachal Pradesh, according to which in addition to 12 percent free electricity, Himachal got 7.19 percent share under the Punjab Reorganization Act from November 1, 1966.
He said that after the decision of the Supreme Court, we formed a committee under the leadership of Energy Principal Secretary Shri Deepak Sanan, which calculated the dues from November 1, 1966 to September 2012 and distributed the outstanding amount of Rs 4300 crore to the remaining participating states of BBMB. , Withdrawn dues from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan towards Himachal. We put our claim before the Supreme Court and the concerned state governments and the Congress led UPA government at the Centre.
Congress came to power in December 2012, now the Congress government should tell what steps it took between 2012 and 2017 to collect the dues of Rs 4300 crore. In fact, when these facts come to the fore, it will become clear whose mentality is anti-Himachal.
Prof. Dhumal said that the Congress government did not make serious efforts to collect its rights and dues. All the records are available with the government, from legal battles to other correspondence, the money had to be taken from the concerned states, if the state had presented its case properly then the state would have benefited. There is no benefit to be gained from blaming. This figure of Rs 4300 crore was also calculated by the Sanan Committee formed by our government. The Congress central government and the state government have failed to claim the rights of Himachal.