Corruption to be main poll plank in HP assembly polls: Dhumal

Dhumal gave a list of "anti-Himachal" decisions taken by the Centre and said that in spite of non-cooperative attitude of the UPA government, Himachal has made rapid strides in all sectors.

"Himachal has been denied special financial assistance, industrial package was terminated prematurely, the railway line expansion projects made no headway, food and kerosene quota under PDS was reduced and step-motherly treatment was meted out by the 13th Finance Commission to the state", he told reporters here.

Dhumal denied Congress accusations that the BJP government was taking credit for centrally-sponsored schemes and said that some of the flagship programmes like Atal Free School uniform scheme, Atal Bijli Bachat Yojana, Pt Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojana and Doodh Ganga Yojana were conceptualised and implemented by the state government and had these been centrally sponsored schemes, the Congress-ruled states would have been in the forefront.

Lashing out at the Congress for making false allegations and misleading the people by giving unverified facts, Dhumal said that the entire expenditure on Atal School Uniform Yojana and Atal Bijli Yojana was met by the state government and the Centre had no role in these popular schemes.

Refuting the charge of the Congress that the state government has failed to utilise plan funds, Dhumal said that it was other way round and plan funds were not spent and plan size was reduced during the Congress government while plan size was increased by 39 per cent during the BJP ruled and the government spent about Rs 1800 crore more than the sanctioned plan funds during the eleventh plan.

Ridiculing the Congress claim of exposing corruption during the BJP rule, Chief Minister said that it was a typical case of "kettle calling the pot black" and said that the people of the country are well aware that corruption broke all records during the UPA regime.

Dhumal said that the 2G scam, CWG scam and now the coalgate scam have not only deprived the country of billions of rupees but also brought shame to the nation and the BJP would fully expose the Congress-led UPA government.

The BJP was bound to come to power again and its "mission Repeat" would be accomplished and the party would complete the remaining works after coming back to power, he claimed.