BJP, HLP play blame game

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 28

After the High Court gave relief to the government over cutting apple trees on the forest land in the state, the BJP and Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) entered into a blame game to get political mileage.

The BJP attacked the Congress and blamed it for its delayed action. The HLP, which has just one MLA in the Vidhan Sabha, targeted both the BJP and the Congress.

BJP vice-president and former Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta today blamed the Congress government for pushing small and marginal farmers to the brink by not pleading their case before the High Court in time and seeking relief for them.

Welcoming the High Court order, Bragta said he had put forth welfare of small and marginal farmers and the High Court order had confirmed that. Had the government not delayed its petition by four months, perhaps small and marginal farmers would not have suffered losses as they did, he said.

He demanded that the government should bring in an ordinance in the Vidhan Sabha to find a permanent solution to the problem. The government should frame a policy for farmers who had not encroached on any land, he said.

Bragta demanded that the government should ensure that those farmers who had built small houses should not face water and electricity disconnections and eviction.

Dharam Chand Guleria, executive member of the state Himachal Lokhit Party, blamed both the BJP and the Congress for the present problems farmers were facing. Both parties did not want that farmers come out of their miseries and become richer, he said.

He said the Congress and the BJP encouraged people to encroach on forest or government land and never bothered to frame a policy for them. Both parties and forest and revenue officials, who never take action at the outset, were responsible for farmers’ predicament, he charged.

The HLP launched the Janjagran Abhiyan exposing misdeeds of both the parties in the state, Guleria said. Both BJP and Congress played politics of divide and rule and made poor poorer in the state, he added.