Challenges: Keep Dhumal loyalists together, create jobs

SHIMLA: Several challenges stare at 52-year-old Jai Ram Thakur, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) pick for the chief minister’s post in Himachal Pradesh after the party’s victory in the assembly elections. Here are some of them

BALANCING ACT

Thakur’s primary responsibility will be to keep the BJP’S flock of 44 new legislators together in a state where factionalism could bother the party after its pre-poll candidate for the chief minister’s post, 73-year-old Prem Kumar Dhumal, lost the election. Several of Dhumal’s loyalists lost too, but the two-time CM still commands influence.

Thakur will have to strike a balance between organisation and government, especially strong caste and regional affiliations when he picks his ministers.

CREATING JOBS

Himachal reels from little job opportunities but the new chief minister could turn the bleak scenario around by offering self-employment options for the youth. The government’s statistical department says there are more than 3,00,000 unemployed people in the state, while employment exchange data put it at around a million.

FUNDS CRUNCH

Thakur’s biggest challenge will be to stem a financial crisis in the state, which has a debt burden of over ₹45,000 crore and its per capita debt is ₹5,000. The Centre has been giving ₹8,000 crore a year as revenue deficit grant to bail out the state, but this relief is just a stopgap solution. Successive state governments have failed to mobilise resources and tax collection went down after implementation of good and services tax.

ECONOMY REBOOT

For the current financial year, the agriculture-dependent state’s growth rate is 6.8%. But contributions from the farm sector into the economy have shrunk and the state hasn’t registered any significant growth in industries. Tourism, which also sustains the economy, has been stagnant too. Given the scenario, Thakur may have to take unpopular and tough decisions such as overhauling the taxation system and excise policy to boost finances.

HEALTH SECTOR

Himachal has built hospitals and put more beds for patients over the past five years, but vacant posts of doctors and other medical staff have crippled services.

QUALITY EDUCATION

Himachal has more than 2,000 government and private educational institutions. But poor results besiege most schools and teachers are seldom held responsible. During the previous BJP rule, more than a dozen private universities were built but quality education is still a dream for many students in Himachal.

LAW AND ORDER

The BJP spoke about the state’s deteriorating law and order during its poll campaign, giving examples of the gang rape and murder of a schoolgirl in Kotkhai, and the killing of forest guard Hoshiyar Singh in Mandi. The cases dented the state police image. Thakur will have to restore people’s faith in police.