Shimla: Taking umbrage to former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s outburst against the three month old BJP government on Saturday, Ravinder Ravi, Ramesh Dhawala and Rajiv Bindal, all cabinet ministers have termed it as a bundle of blatant lies that only smacked frustration.
The former chief minister has been unable to digest the good governance being initiated in a transparent manner by the present government that is touching all sections of society, stated the ministers in a communiqué.
In a short time the present government has been able to formulate an employee transfer policy, something which the previous government could not do in five long years, say Ravi, Dhawala and Bindal.
Virbhadra’s treatment of his detractors can be recollected by how his henchmen treated late Ram Lal Thakur and Anand Sharma, now a union cabinet minister at a party meeting in Parwanoo, when the state had a congress government. Senior congressmen Vijay Singh Mankotia, Vijay Joshi and Kewal Singh Pathania fared no better and were forced out of the party, say the trio.
The minsters also recalled that the ‘Giri Ganga drinking water scheme’ etched for Solan and Bamson-Mewa schemes were formulated by the 1998-2003 BJP government were also not completed by the previous government but stand completed now.
The trio also hailed the current governments decision of making 50 % reservations in Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies. They rubbished Virbhadra’s claim about the Rs 2400 annual plan being prepared by the previous congress government. They further said that the 2007-08 plan had actually suffered under the Virbhadra Singh government due to wrong projections which resulted in a loss of 133 crore. Under the plan the state could have received Rs 475 crore as special central assistance but only received Rs 342 crore, said the ministers.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.