In a statement, Virbhadra Singh accused the Chief Minister of misleading the people and resorting to lies regarding failure of the Congress government to make budgetary provisions for the food subsidy scheme. Virbhadra Singh is currently in Delhi after a vacation in Kerala, where he had gone for ayurvedic treatment. He is expected to be back after March 10 to participate in the budget debate in the Assembly.

The former chief minister said the state Food and Civil Supplies Corporation, which was entrusted the job of implementing the scheme, was provided necessary funds to meet all the expenses. The scheme had worked well and provided great relief to people, who otherwise were affected by prices of essential items.

The scheme, aimed at providing cheaper ration to all ration card holders through PDS, was announced in the 2007-2008 budget by Virbhadra in March 2007. The scheme is still under implementation, though complaints of its malpractices have started pouring in.

Presenting a supplementary demands for grants for the current year, Chief Minister Dhumal announced a provision of Rs 70 crore for the scheme. Later in the day, he wondered how the Congress took credit for the scheme when it had not kept a single penny in the current year’s budget.

Virbhadra Singh said the supplementary budget, which Dhumal presented in the House, was simply a formality to regularise the expenditure incurred on the scheme. “It does not befit a person occupying the chief minister’s post to make a misleading statement. Thus, to say that it was a big omission on part of the Congress government is highly objectionable,” he said.

The former chief minister alleged that the BJP government, ever since it assumed power, had tried to scuttle the scheme. Some of the items covered under the scheme have also been withdrawn and are not made available, he said. “The Congress will not take this lightly. Any move to scrap the scheme will have a direct affect on the people. It’s better that the BJP should continue implementation of the scheme,” he advised.