No unemployment allowance, reiterates Virbhadra Singh

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 11

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who arrived here this evening for his week-long winter sojourn in Kangra district, reiterated that the state government had no intention of paying unemployment allowance to the youth in the state.

In an interaction with mediapersons, the Chief Minister said that no committee had been formed to look into the issue of providing unemployment allowance to the youth.

It was earlier speculated that the state government had formed a committee for the purpose.

The issue of providing unemployment allowance to youth was taken by Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Transport and Technical Education GS Bali.

Bali had been maintaining that providing unemployment allowance to youth was a part of Congress election manifesto and the state government was bound to fulfil it.

The HPCC president Sukhwinder Sukhu had also supported Bali’s demand. The issue cropped up when Bali was denied entry to the stage during the rally of Rahul Gandhi organised at Dharamsala on December 24.

The Chief Minister, however, today said that the state government, following the policy of the union government, was providing skill development allowance to the unemployed youth in the state. So there was no need to provide unemployment allowance.

The Chief Minister also said that the Congress was ready for Boranj Assembly bypoll. “We are ever ready for any kind for poll,” he said. Boranj Assembly constituency had fallen vacant due to demise of BJP MLA and former minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman.

The constituency falls in Hamirpur district and had traditionally been BJP strong hold. The BJP had been alleging the Congress did not want to face Boranj bypoll.

The Chief Minister said the present Congress government was ready to face bypoll at any point of time.

When asked about the BJP allegation that he was busy visiting Delhi due to his cases due to which development in the state was suffering, Virbhadra Singh said the BJP had failed to see the phenomenal development that had taken place in the state in the last four years.

Virbhadra Singh said that he would be touring various areas of Kangra district to inaugurate various development schemes and strike a rapport with the people of the area.

The Chief Minister also attended the function organized by a vernacular monthly magazine later in the evening. The inauguration programmes of the Chief Minister in Dharamsala were postponed today as he arrived late in the evening from Delhi.