Himachal Govt raises Rs 1,000 cr loan for development needs

Shimla: The state government has again raised a loan of Rs 1,000 crore to meet its development requirements.

The Central Government has capped the loan limit for the state government and the latter can now raise only Rs 300 crore till March 31.

The biggest worry for the state government is to pay salaries and pension to its about 2.50 lakh employees. The state government had raised Rs 12,000 crore loans from January 2023 to January 2024. The Central Government had imposed a loan limit of Rs 6,600 crore on the state and it had already raised Rs 1,300 crore.

The state government had issued the notification for raising Rs 1,000 crore loan last week. It would get Rs 1,000 crore loan on January 17 in two installments of Rs 500 crore each for 10 years and 15 years, respectively.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who also holds the finance portfolio, will hold consultations with MLAs on January 29 and 30 to fix development priorities of their Assembly constituencies. The Congress government had presented a White paper on the grave financial health of the state in the Vidhan Sabha during the monsoon session.

The BJP alleges that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will be known in the history of Himachal only for raising maximum loan. It says that despite raising a huge amount of loan, Sukhu has earned discredit for ordering the closure of about 1,000 government institutions opened by the previous BJP government.

On the other hand, the Chief Minister accuses the BJP of opening government institutions, schools, hospitals, dispensaries and the offices of revenue, electricity, jal shakti and public works divisions recklessly in the last six months of its tenure, ignoring the state’s dire financial health.