 "Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister , Jai Ram Thakur")
The Himachal Pradesh assembly on Monday repealed the Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Act amid a walkout by the opposition BJP.
The opposition strongly opposed the Bill to repeal the Act and heated exchanges marked the proceedings.
Introducing the Bill to repeal the Act, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said the previous BJP government misused funds in the name of "Loktantra Prahari Samman" and benefitted its favourites.
"During emergency, no person was jailed as punishment and the arrests were preventive and the previous government spent more than Rs 3.43 crore in the name of Loktantra Prahari Samman," he said.
BJP governments headed by former chief ministers Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal were in power twice, so why did they not take notice of Loktantra Praharis, he asked.
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Leader of the opposition and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said the government should reconsider repealing the Act if it has faith in democracy.
Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh said such honour should be given only to freedom fighters and the BJP government murdered democracy by enacting such a law.
BJP member Satpal Singh Satti said the BJP government, on returning to power, would double the samman rashi and the previous unpaid amount would be paid with interest.
Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi said RSS was a curse for the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed an undeclared' emergency.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
