Shimla, Sept. 24 -- Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) exchanged barbs over central assistance for natural calamities in Himachal Pradesh as industry minister Harshwardhan Chauhan on Tuesday asserted that the Centre had given the state "no charity" and that the support extended was only routine disaster relief provided to every state.

Speaking at a press conference in Shimla, Chauhan said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unnecessarily glorifying the Centre's role, while in reality, Himachal Pradesh did not receive the special economic package it deserved in the wake of devastating natural disasters. "The assistance we received was part of the regular allocation that every state gets under disaster relief and rescue provisions....