Yog Raj Sharma
The North News
Shimla, March 27
There was uproar in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Friday as opposition BJP members staged a protest during the budget session over allegations of irregularities in the Himcare health insurance scheme. The disruption began even before Question Hour, with opposition legislators entering the well of the House and raising slogans for nearly an hour. They objected to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s recent remarks alleging a Rs 1,100 crore scam in the Himcare scheme, calling the claim baseless and contrary to official records.
The BJP demanded a probe by a sitting High Court judge and accused the Congress government of attempting to shut down the scheme.
Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur questioned how a scam of Rs 1,100 crore could be possible when, according to him, the previous BJP government had spent only Rs 441 crore on the scheme during its tenure.
He said the government must explain the figure and accused the chief minister of presenting misleading data. Thakur said Sukhu should apologise to the Assembly and the people of the state if the figure was incorrect.
Thakur also alleged that Rs 972 crore had been spent on the Himcare scheme during the Congress government’s tenure and claimed that irregularities and commission-based practices had emerged under the current administration.
He further accused the state government of trying to discontinue the scheme and said that if any scam had taken place, the matter should be investigated by a sitting judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
Responding to the opposition, Sukhu denied that the scam involved Rs 1,100 crore and said the actual suspected irregularity was closer to Rs 120 crore.
The chief minister said the higher figure may have been a “slip of the tongue”, but insisted that serious wrongdoing had taken place in the scheme.
He said internal audits of government hospitals had revealed “shocking facts” and added that the state government had already ordered a vigilance inquiry into the Himcare scheme.
Sukhu accused the opposition of reacting nervously because of the investigation, while the BJP maintained that the government was making politically motivated allegations against a welfare programme launched under the previous administration.
The confrontation led to sharp exchanges in the House, highlighting growing tensions between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP during the ongoing budget session in Shimla.
