BJP releases vision document for Himachal; focuses on all-round development, Women safety, jobs for youth
Shimla, October 30: As soon as the poll bugle sounded in Himachal Pradesh, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) released vision document on Sunday asserting all round infrastructural development, end mafia raj in state while women's safety, free 'chardham' pilgrimage for the elderly and jobs for youth are among the key focus areas.
Notably, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday released a vision document or manifesto for the upcoming assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh. BJP has concentrated on Himachal’s all round infrastructural development along with ending mafia raj, free 'chardham' pilgrimage for the elderly and jobs for youth etc.
BJP also promised a 24-hour helpline in the chief minister's office for reporting all types of crimes, setting up of Somnath Vahini, a task force of ex-servicemen to take stringent action on drug mafia and crime. The party led by Amit Shah has also promised to take measures for better law and order situation comes in the backdrop of widespread protests over the Kotkhai rape and murder case and other incidents.
The BJPs manifesto also stressed hard on curbing corruption and promised to bring transparency in public life. To ensure transparency, BJP MLAs would publicly declare all their assets, it said. Safe drinking water to every house, road connectivity to all villages, emergency medical services in rural and remote areas, doubling the income of farmers by 2022, raising of compensation for land acquired by the government for developmental projects, social security pension were also other sectors where BJP will concentrate on work.
Further BJP has also promised abolition of interviews for Class-III and Class-IV jobs, laptops and free WiFi, job fairs to facilitate unemployed youth, free education to families who are below Poverty Line till graduation, new tourist destinations for employment generation and the promotion of homestay tourism.
After releasing the vision document for assembly polls, Minister Arun Jaitley slammed the Congress government and said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh remained engaged in self-survival due to which he had no time to fulfill the mandate given by the people. Denying the allegation leveled by Chief Minister Virbhadra that cases against him were instituted at his behest, Minister Jaitley said that "all the cases were instituted on the basis of the documents that surfaced in 2012 when the UPA government was in power".
On this occasion, Arun Jaitley also criticized former Finance Minister P Chidambaram by saying that position of Congress with regard to "azaadi or greater autonomy" for Jammu and Kashmir was against the national interest. Earlier, P Chidambaram during a press conference said when people of Jammu and Kashmir ask for azaadi, most of them mean they want greater autonomy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was accompanied by J P Nadda and Thawar Chand Gehlot, former chief ministers Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and other senior leaders. Interestingly, Himachal Pradesh will poll on November 9 and the counting of votes will take place a month later on December 18.