Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Shimla: The BJP on Wednesday accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of obliging friends while ignoring merit and competence, after the high court ordered the closure of 18 loss-making properties of the Tourism Development Corporation.
The HC Tuesday ordered that the 18 properties of the HPTDC with poor occupancy be closed from November 25.
Slamming the state government over the HC order, Himachal BJP's chief spokesperson Randhir Sharma asked if the state government would challenge the order in the Supreme Court or give these units to "friend" on lease.
The chief minister has been "obliging his friends" at the cost of merit and competence, he told the media here, adding the Congress government failed to secure the interests of HPTDC as the advocate general and the additional advocate general could not plead the case effectively.
The court order has exposed the tall claims of the government that it was taking various steps for the development of tourism in the state, he said.
He also said that previously, government counsels failed to defend the case regarding refund of the upfront money to a hydropower company, resulting in attachment order for the Himachal Bhawan in Delhi.
The properties of HPTDC are at prime locations and an enquiry should be instituted to find out why these units are incurring losses, he said.
Sharma further alleged that the government was working under the pressure of mafias.
Another senior BJP leader said the HP High Court orders for attaching the Himachal Bhawan in Delhi and closing 18 hotels of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) are glaring examples of the state government's incompetence He said 18 hotels of HPTDC are running in losses due to the mismanagement of the Congress government. How much more humiliation will Himachal have to endure under the Congress rule, he questioned.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement issued here, Deputy Chief Whip Kewal Singh Pathania and Congress MLA Ajay Solanki alleged the judgement was the result of reckless spending of the BJP government.
They blamed the previous BJP Government for their failure to maintain and upkeep the properties of the Tourism Corporation and said that their leaders and workers made blatant misuse of the tourism hotels and it was during their tenure that the debt mounted, pushing the HPTDC in loss.
During the BJP regime, the HPTDC suffered a loss of Rs 49.68 crore in 2019-20, which escalated to Rs 49.97 crore in 2020-21 and further to Rs 51.98 crore the next year, they said.