Himachal: Row erupts over electricity bill of Cabinet-rank minister

Shimla: An unusual row has erupted over the electricity bill of Cabinet-rank minister Raghubir Singh Bali, who also heads the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and the HP State Tourism Board.

For the past two days, Bali has been at the centre of a storm on social media, with posts and viral videos alleging that his electricity bills were exorbitantly high—far exceeding those of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, or senior ministers Harshvardhan Chauhan and Rohit Thakur for their official residences

Bali is a first-time MLA from Nagrota Bhawan in Kangra district.

The controversy rose two days back after the Chief Minister, during the ongoing Assembly session, tabled a reply furnishing details of power bills of all the cabinet ministers, including his own, in response to a question asked by BJP MLA Sudhir Sharma and ruling party MLA Kewal Singh Pathania.

Upset with the narrative created by the inflated Bali, on Thursday, raised the matter in the House during zero hour. He came armed with original billing records of the past 32 months of his official residence and alleged a conspiracy to defame him because the actual bill was much less than what was reflected in the reply tables in the House.

“There should be sanctity and seriousness in all the papers laid in the House. Whenever any issue is raised in the House and the documents that are laid out are based on facts," said Bali.

Seeking to set the record straight, he urged the government to clarify the matter, asserting that the misleading reports had caused him serious personal and political harm, also seeking action against the officials responsible for the error.