Appointments to corporations, boards unnecessary: Agnihotri

Our Correspondent

UNA, October 19

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Mukesh Agnihotri today termed the recent appointments to the posts of chairman and vice-chairman of various boards and corporations by the state government as unnecessary in view of the severe resource crunch.

Addressing media persons here, he said the appointments proved that they were Chief Minister’s political compulsions, adding that inclusion of some faces revealed these were the outcome of groupism within the state BJP.

Agnihotri said the state was reeling under a huge debt, which had mounted to almost Rs 50,000 crores. Under these circumstances, no Chief Minister would want to put additional financial burden on the exchequer. He said when the BJP was in the opposition in the state, they had opposed such appointments.

The Leader of the Opposition demanded a CBI inquiry into the death of Sumit, a youth from Raipur Sahoran village of Una district, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Kotla Kalan village a few days ago. He said the kin of the deceased had lost faith in the police, who, he said, were under political pressure to hush up the case. He cautioned that the Opposition will not be a silent spectator if justice was not delivered. He, along with Una MLA Satpal Raizada and district Congress president Varinder Dharmani, earlier met the kin of the deceased at their house.

Agnihotri charged that while only a few months were left for the Lok Sabha elections, the Union ministers were still making announcements, knowing well that even laying the foundations of the new schemes will not be possible in such a short span of time.

Agnihotri asked the Chief Minister to tell the people regarding the much publicized Rs 65,000 crores reportedly sanctioned by the Union government for new National Highways in the state. He said like the Opposition, even the people need to be informed regarding these funds.

The Congress leader charged that mining mafia was rampant in the state and mounds of sand and gravel had been dumped along the rivers with utter disregard to the law of the land. He said it appears that even the police and administrative officers were under pressure not to take action against the mafia.