Himachal Cabinet to meet again on February 12, discuss Revenue Deficit Grant issue
Government is likely to hold an all-party meeting close to the Cabinet meeting to take the BJP leaders into confidence regarding the grave financial health of the Himachal Pradesh
The Himachal Cabinet will be meeting for the second time in a week on February 12 to deliberate on the situation arising out of the recommendation of the 16th Finance Commission to discontinue the Revenue Deficit Grant (RDG) for Himachal.
It is expected that considering the gravity of the situation, the Cabinet can take a call to adopt some austerity measures to curb wasteful expenditure. It had held an emergency meeting on February 8, solely to discuss the financial crisis that Himachal would have to face in view of this recommendation.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu left for New Delhi today to attend a party meeting with the AICC president. “Though I am going to New Delhi to attend a party function, I will try and meet Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda to seek his intervention in taking up the issue of the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he added.
Sukhu had said that efforts would be made to find a political solution to the RDG issue and he along with his Cabinet was willing to meet the Prime Minister under the leadership of BJP leaders, as for him nothing was more important than the interests of the state. If these efforts did not yield results, the state government would be left with no option but to move court against this injustice, sources added.
The state government is likely to hold an all-party meeting close to the Cabinet meeting to take the BJP leaders into confidence regarding the grave financial health of the state. Though the state government had made a request, the BJP legislators skipped the presentation made by the Finance Department on February 8 to apprise everyone about the gravity of the situation following the discontinuation of the RDG.
The Chief Minister said that the state government would hold an all-party meeting with leaders, including MLAs, so that the exact financial health of the state could be discussed. It is likely that the meeting would be held before the commencement of the Budget session on February 16.
