Himachal fire in control, can’t be compared with U’khand: Virbhadra

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said forest fire in his state are “not comparable” with those raging in Uttarakhand and the situation here is “fully under control”.

“There is nothing unusual in forest fire occurring during summers but the situation (in Himachal) is not like (that in) Uttarakhand where Indian Air Forec (IAF) choppers have been pressed into service to douse the fire,” he said.

He said these fires are caused by burning of highly -inflammable dry pine needles, which sometimes occur due to negligence and in some cases villagers deliberately set them on fire to get good crop of grass, used as fodder.

As many as 378 forest fire incidents have been reported from different parts of Himachal Pradesh this summer.

“I have been seeing forest fire in Shimla and surrounding areas since my childhood and there is nothing unusual and the forest department is fully geared up to deal with the situation and people are also cooperative,” Singh said.

The Chief Minister also lashed out at the BJP for raking up the issue of loans raised by the government and said “all loans have been raised within the limits prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India RBI) and not a penny has been taken as loan over and above the limit”. “All governments take loans for development projects and Himachal is no exception but the opposition BJP is unnecessarily making a hue and cry over the issue,” he said.

Referring to the reported remarks of youth Congress president Vikramaditya Singh that they will “write report card of MLAs” based on which tickets would be given, Chief Minister said “he had been misquoted and that he had only said about fielding more youths in 2017 assembly polls”.

The youth Congress can only recommend candidates’ name but it’s for the party High Command to take decisions on the basis of reputation, image, and winability.

When asked about the visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the state, he said it’s the prerogative of the chief minister to decide the place and venue and the party leaders can give their choices to him.

He said the post of Chief Information Commissioner is being advertised and successor of Chief Secretary, P Mitra, who is retiring this month would be decided soon.