Former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has castigated the practice of giving freebies to voters to win elections and regain power by political parties.
Replying to a question while addressing a press conference at Mandi on Tuesday, Thakur said, “Giving freebies to voters to capture power in elections is a wrong practice and all political parties should spurn the practice as this practice is leading to economic crises in the states.”
He said , “ Giving such guarantees are ruining the economy and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held freebies responsible for economic crises in many states, the election commission should also put bindings on political parties against freebies,” he added.
Taking on the state government, Thakur said, “Several contradictory decisions taken by the state government during the past two years have made the position of the state government ridiculous as one notification is issued on one day and amended the next day after public criticism.”
He said, “Various notifications issued by the state government like abolition of posts in government departments lying vacant for more than two years and on freight charges in HRTC buses have proved the leadership of Congress government is not mature and taking anti people decisions.”
He said, “The present Congress state government had given several guarantees to voters before the Assembly election and now making false claim of fulfilling five guarantee; in fact the state government had promised to give financial help of Rs 1500 per month to 2 lakh women of the state but has not even given help to 22000 women and its promise to give employment to one lakh youths and buy dung from farmers has also not been fulfilled.”
Taking a dig at Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Thakur said, “He should not worry about my position but instead worry about his chair as discontentment among his party MLAs and ministers is simmering and his chair is shaking”.
