Shimla: The war of attrition between chief minister Virbhadra Singh and former chief minister PK Dhumal escalated today with both the arch rivals upping the ante against each other.
Chief minister's reported remarks at Una yesterday that he would not sit quite and release the list of properties of Dhumal and his family members, evoked sharp reaction from the BJP leader who dared the chief minister to release the list of his properties.
While the Singh reportedly said that Dhumal and his sons were allegedly involved in many scams, Dhumal hit out his rival saying that "it has become habit of the chief minister to make such wild allegations to divert the attention of people from the charges of corruption levelled against him".
"During past four months, he had been repeating this threat but I would not be cowed down and dare him to release
the list of his properties.
"All my properties had been declared in the affidavit filed at the time contesting the assembly polls and if there is any other property, not mentioned in the affidavit, chief minister is free to vest it in the government", Dhumal said.
Dhumal alleged that Virbhadra Singh had got registered 161 bighas of land which he got after the death of his mother and in fact this land should have been vested in the government under the land ceiling Act and said that after the irregularity was exposed, he put the blame on the officials.
Responding to the charge of Virbhadra Singh that he was instrumental in instituting the infamous CD case against him, Dhumal said that the CD was released by one of his former cabinet colleagues and matter reached the court as Singh filed a defamation case.
Asserting that there was nothing new in the CM's allegations, Dhumal said that a similar complaint against him was dismissed by the Lokayukta while the same allegations were levelled by former Punjab chief minister Capt Amrender Singh during the 2003 assembly polls in Himachal and finally, Capt had to express regrets in writing when he filed a defamation case against him.
Dhumal again raked up the issue of loans raised by CM and his family members from a "private individual" and said that it was strange that the six-time chief minister has no faith in government financial institutions.
He also raised the issue of orchard income of Virbhadra Singh multiplying 14 times when he was minister in union cabinet and said that he owed an explanation for phenomenal increase in income.
The NDA government led by Prime minister Narendra Modi had provided sufficient financial aid to Himachal and the state would get Rs 40,265 crore as grant from Finance Commission over next five years and instead of framing the political opponents in false cases, Virbhadra Singh should be focused on development of the state, Dhumal said.
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