Munish Sood
Mandi
In a politically explosive statement that has the potential to trigger a fresh confrontation between the elected government and the bureaucracy in Himachal Pradesh, Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut has squarely blamed the Mandi district administration for allegedly stalling development works across her parliamentary constituency.
Addressing BJP workers during a public meeting in Karsog, the MP did not stop at criticising the Congress government. She directly trained her guns on Mandi Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan, alleging that crores of rupees released under her Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Fund continue to remain stuck in the Deputy Commissioner’s office instead of reaching the ground where they are urgently needed.
Kangana claimed that despite making funds available for development projects and disaster rehabilitation, the district administration had failed to move proposals forward, resulting in avoidable delays in works meant for the public.
“There is absolutely no shortage of funds. The money has already been sanctioned. The real problem is the administrative machinery, which is simply not allowing development to move ahead,” she told party workers, accusing officials of being indifferent to the concerns raised by elected representatives.
In one of her sharpest attacks yet on the bureaucracy, the BJP MP alleged that officers under the present Congress government had become “unresponsive” and were no longer taking public representatives seriously. She claimed that repeated follow-ups had yielded little response, leaving sanctioned projects trapped in official files while people continued to wait for basic development works.
The remarks have significantly escalated the political discourse in Himachal, shifting the focus from a government-versus-opposition battle to serious questions over bureaucratic accountability. By publicly naming the Mandi Deputy Commissioner, Kangana has effectively placed the functioning of the district administration under political scrutiny.
The allegations, if substantiated, raise uncomfortable questions: Why would sanctioned public funds remain unutilised? What procedural hurdles, if any, are preventing their release? And if there are no legal impediments, who should be held accountable for the delay?
Kangana also accused the Sukhu-led Congress government of using political controversies to divert attention from what she described as administrative paralysis, asserting that development in her constituency was being sacrificed because of a lack of cooperation from the bureaucracy.
The Congress government and the Mandi district administration are yet to respond to the allegations. However, the MP’s direct attack on the Deputy Commissioner is likely to intensify the debate over the role and accountability of the bureaucracy in implementing development works in Himachal Pradesh.
