BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal accused chief minister Virbhadra Singh of removing plaques of foundation stones with his (Dhumal) name

SHIMLA: There were awkward moments inside the assembly on Friday when BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal accused chief minister Virbhadra Singh of removing plaques of foundation stones with his (Dhumal) name on them. Intervening during the question hour, Nahan MLA Rajeev Bindal asked Virbhadra whether any instructions had been issued for inaugurating an already inaugurated building.

In reply, Virbhadra said there were general instructions that the minister of department concerned lay the foundation stone or do the inauguration but it could also be done on authorization of either chief parliamentary secretary or local MLA.
He added that if an inaugural plate was already then it should not have been removed.

BJP MLA from Seraj, Jai Ram Thakur said that at many places inaugural plates of chief minister Virbhadra were being placed by local leaders in his absence. The CM replied that instead of attending inaugurations personally, he was also doing them either through video conferencing or telephonically.

He said that inauguration plates of former chief minister Dr Y S Parmar and Thakur Ram Lal were not seen today as they were removed under the previous BJP regimes.

Dhumal said he had inaugurated the building of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank in Dharamshala but after coming to power Virbhadra had removed it and directed the officials to install a rather small plaque. He added that Virbhadra had visited the place later just to check whether the plaque had been removed.

To this, Virbhadra replied that the plaque covered the entire wall and that Dhumal should have taken those who made it to task over its size. “This was height of vulgarity, and nonsense,” he added. Dhumal hit back at the CM, saying that when he inaugurated the Solan Sabzi Mandi Virbhadra had installed a big board with his picture in the front.

As the war of words between the two leaders continued and the ruling and opposition party members started raising their voice, and even demanded resignations, speaker BBL Butail intervened to pacify them.

Bureau Report