Cong-initiated developmental works stopped by BJP: Bali

The Himachal Congress on Saturday accused the BJP's Jai Ram government in the state of keeping officials under a treat to ensure its win in the October 21 bypolls for Dharamshala assembly or face transfer to the state's remote and difficult areas.

The party also alleged the state government has stalled all the Congress-initiated developmental works here and has refrained from starting a single project since coming to the power nearly two years ago simply because the Congress has a majority in the Dharmshala Municipal Corporation.

The BJP government has created an atmosphere of terror in this by by-election in Dharamshala. The government machinery is being openly misused by the Jai Ram government in the state," Congress' MP Viplov Thakur, representing Himachal Pradesh in Rajya Sabha, told a news conference here.

"Employees are being threatened to be shifted to difficult and remote areas if they do not work to ensure the BJP's victory in the byelection," she said.

She, however, asserted that the voters in the area have adopted a "strategic silence", which indicates a change in their mindset and a "sure win" for the Congress.

Former Union minister Chandresh Kumari accused the Union and state governments of withholding all developmental works in Kangra distrct.

"During the past seven years, the BJP government in the Centre has sanctioned no project for Kangra district, particularly of Dharamshala. The Modi government has withheld all development works of the area," she alleged.

Endorsing Kumari's allegations of the Central and state governments withholding all developmental works in Dharamshala, former state minister and senior Congress leader said, "All developmental works in Dharamshala initiated during the Congress rule have been totally stopped and no fresh plan or project is being brought by the BJP government in its two years of rule."