Himachal Pradesh Cabinet chooses to forego salaries amid financial strain; BJP criticizes move

Himachal Pradesh Cabinet’s salary suspension sparks criticism from BJP amid fiscal crisis

The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet members have decided not to take any salary, TA, and DA for the next 2 months due to financial stress, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced on Thursday. He requested all the MLAs to also take a similar move.

In a statement in the House, CM Sukhu said: “I urge all the members of the Assembly to voluntarily take a similar decision.”

“After discussing in the cabinet, all the members of the cabinet decided that until the state sees good improvement in the coming times, we will not take any salary, nor TA, nor DA for 2 months. This is just a small amount, but it is a symbolic amount. Apart from this, I also requested all the MLAs.”

“Efforts are being made to increase revenue and reduce wasteful expenditure, though results will take time to become visible,” he said.

Expressing concern over the financial condition, the Chief Minister said the revenue deficit grant for 2023-24 was Rs.8,058 crore, which has been reduced by Rs.1,800 crore to Rs.6,258 crore this fiscal.

“In 2025-26, the revenue deficit grant will be reduced by another Rs.3,000 crore to Rs.3,257 crore, which will make it even tougher for us to meet our needs,” he stated.

Expressing concern over the “delay” in getting central funds for last year’s natural calamity that claimed more than 700 lives and massively damaged public and private property, the Chief Minister said the state “is still awaiting Rs.9,042 crore grant under the Post Disaster Need Assessment from the Centre for the damages suffered to bridges and other infrastructure during the monsoon of 2023″.

BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari hit out at the chief minister, saying the state does not have money to pay salary. “The situation in Himachal Pradesh is such that the Chief Minister does not have money to pay his own salary, there is no money to pay the Chief Secretary, there is no money to pay the MLAs.”

Bhandari said that this shows that the financial condition of the state has become terrible due to “Rahul Gandhi’s Khata-khat model” and this is Rahul Gandhi’s guarantee model and his economic thinking has been exposed. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to warn the country about this same Revdi culture.

“In Karnataka too, we have seen how the prices of day-to-day needs, be it milk or water, have been increased and Karnataka is also going through a financial crisis. Rahul Gandhi should apologize to the people of the country because all his promises have been proven fake today,” the BJP leader added.

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