PWD for Vikramaditya Singh, Dhani Ram Shandil gets Health Department
Shimla, January 11
Three days after the Himachal Cabinet expansion, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today allotted portfolios among his ministers.
While Sukhu has kept Finance, Home, General Administration, Personnel and other departments not allotted to anyone, the most sought-after Industries and PWD have gone to six-time legislator Harshwardhan Chauhan and two-time MLA Vikramaditya Singh, respectively. Dhani Ram Shandil has been alloted Health and Family Welfare, Social Justice and Empowerment and Labour and Employment.
Chander Kumar gets Agriculture and Animal Husbandry; Jagat Singh Negi Revenue, Horticulture and Tribal Development; Rohit Thakur Higher Education, Elementary Education and Technical Education and Anirudh Singh Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
Chauhan has also got Parliamentary Affairs and Ayush; and Vikramaditya Youth Services and Sports. Jal Shakti, Transport and Language, Art and Culture are already with Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri
The ministries were allotted hours after the Sukhu government said it would approve the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in its first Cabinet meeting on January 13. “The Finance Department has worked out a few options in this regard. All these will be discussed and the most suitable option will be approved,” said Chauhan. Besides OPS, the poll promises of granting Rs 1,500 per month to women aged 18-60 and generating one lakh employment opportunities for the youth are likely to be taken up in the meeting.
Even as Chauhan claimed the implementation of the OPS would not put any immediate burden on the exchequer, he made it clear that the state was in a deep financial trouble. “We will have to take a loan of Rs 1,000 crore each for the next three months to pay to government employees,” he said.
Blaming the previous BJP regime for the current state of affairs (the government inherited a debt of Rs 75,000 crore), Chauhan said the Sukhu government would look to cut down unnecessary expenditure and mobilise more resources for income generation.
