Transparent administration top priority of govt: Himachal CM
Thakur also announces ₹3lakh compensation to the kin of Nepalese who died in police custody in Kotkhai
DHARAMSHALA: Maintaining that providing transparent administration was the top priority of his government, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday said that development of Himachal was the ultimate goal and all will contribute positively in the process.
He was replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the governor’s address. In his an hour-long speech, the CM touched various issues raised by the members.
Thakur also sought Opposition’s cooperation for curbing corruption, forest mafia, drug mafia, liquor mafia and mining mafia.
Speaking about the law-andorder situation, the CM said that some unfortunate incidents such as Kotkhai rape and murder have happened in Himachal in recent past.
“I will not speak much on the case as it is still under investigated. However, this government is committed to improve the situation,” Thakur said.
“Efforts will be made and it will take some time to bridge the trust deficit between police and people,” he added.
He said that the government has decided to launch a ‘Gudiya Helpline’ to curb the increasing cases of crime against women, besides setting up special cells in all three police ranges.
He also announced a compensation of ₹3 lakh to the family of Nepali labourer Suraj, who was killed in police custody in Kotkhai. On the Oppositions’ accusations of government crying hoarse on financial condition of the state, Thakur said people have right to know the ground realities.
“There is no reason why we should not mention that the state is under debt of ₹46,000 crore,” he said, while adding that the government will try to strengthen the finances.
The CM also criticised the previous government for opening large number of education institutions without budgetary provisions. He said these institutions were opened to gain political mileage.
He also slammed the previous government regime for its scheme to provide unemployment allowance to the jobless youth. “There are around 12 lakh such youth in the state but less than 20,000 got the allowance,” Thakur said.
“We will try to create more employment opportunities in both government and private sectors,” he added.
To tackle the stray cattle menace, the CM said, “Government has constituted a cabinet sub-committee and efforts will be made to open cow shelters in each constituency.”
He said that new initiatives will be taken to pace up the development and targets will be set to accomplish these initiatives within 100 days.
“We are planning to set some goals for next five years and achieve them in phased manner,” he said.