Shimla, March 24 It is acceptable to withhold a larger portion of MLAs' salaries rather than cutting the MLA Area Development Fund, said BJP MLA Randhir Sharma while participating in the budget discussion on Tuesday.
The current government has incurred more debt in three years than all previous governments combined, with the total now reaching Rs 1.08 lakh crore, he said.
The MLA Area Development Fund facilitates development works within assembly constituencies, and the state government should refrain from making cuts to this fund, said the MLA from the Shri Naina Devi assembly segment. Such cuts would bring these development activities to a standstill.
He added that, instead, it would be acceptable to withhold a larger portion of the MLAs' salaries.
Sharma said that the budget of over four hours presented by the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has set a historical record for its sheer length, but it contained nothing of substance for the people of the state.
The budget speech was replete with criticism of the Central Government, the previous BJP government, leading one to suspect that the Chief Minister has developed a "BJP-phobia."
Sharma pointed out that, regarding the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant, the state government was fully aware of this development in advance. Since the 15th Finance Commission had already signalled this outcome, the chief minister is engaging in political theatrics over the issue of the RDG.
He said that following the discontinuation of the RDG, the chief minister travelled to Delhi to hold discussions with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram. Had there been any constitutional grounds to challenge the withholding of the RDG, the state government would undoubtedly have prepared to contest the matter in court.
The upcoming budget is projected to be smaller than that of the previous year. Instead of rising, the state government's revenue receipts have actually declined.
In the current financial year, revenue receipts stood at Rs 44,500 crore, a figure expected to drop to Rs 40,361 crore in the coming year, he said.
Sharma said that during the government's first two years in office, revenue receipts had actually shown an upward trend. The simple and clear reason behind this decline in revenue is the imposition of continuous taxes, which is driving up the cost of goods.
Consequently, people are now travelling outside the state to make their purchases. The situation has reached such a point that residents of Shimla, along with those in other cities, are even sourcing their daily groceries and provisions from places like Punjab, Kalka, and other neighbouring regions.
