Himachal govt to issue ‘White Paper’ on fiscal health of state

[Photo : SNS]


Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday highlighting the precarious financial health of the state, said that a white paper would be brought out on the economic condition of the state in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha session.

This would help the people of the state to better understand the reality of the unmindful spending done by the previous BJP government, he said, while interacting with the media persons here at Congress office.

He further said that to ensure speedy redressal of the grievances of the Congress party workers, regular monthly interaction between the Ministers and workers of Congress party would be held at Congress party office.

This move has been initiated in consultation with State congress President Pratibha Singh, he said, adding that this would improve better coordination between state government and workers of the Congress Party including the general public.

He advised the leader of the opposition to introspect about the last five years of the BJP government regime before casting any allegations.

“The present state government has inherited a debt of Rs. 75 thousand crore and the then BJP government failed to release a sum of Rs. 11 thousand crore, due to the government employees as arrears,” he said, adding that additionally, over 900 institutions were opened and upgraded during the last six months of the previous government, which would have resulted in an additional burden of Rs. 5000 crore on the state exchequer.

The Chief Minister himself took the lead by visiting Rajiv Bhawan today as he met various delegations, party workers and common people who came from different parts of the state and listened to their grievances for about three hours.

The Chief Minister reiterated that the state government is fully committed to fulfill all 10 guarantees in their ‘Pratigya Patra’, as assured to the people of the state during the recently concluded general assembly elections.

He said that the old pension scheme has been reinstated in the very first cabinet meeting, which would benefit more than 1.36 lakh government employees.

Other guarantees would be fulfilled in a phased manner, he added.

The state government is marching ahead with a positive approach to improve the economy of the state so that the aspirations of the people could be fulfilled, said the Chief Minister.