Shimla, October 20
Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today said Chief Minister PK Dhumal had not been gracious enough to acknowledge that the UPA regime provided Rs 1,700 crore to Himachal Pradesh under various Centrally sponsored schemes.

Sharma countered the BJP propaganda that the UPA regime had discriminated against the state.

Sharma said the BJP regime had not only diverted and misused funds, but changed the names of some Central schemes as well. He said the annual Plan had been enhanced from Rs 1,900 crore to Rs 3,700 crore during the BJP tenure.

Listing the Centre’s contribution, he said the Central University in Kangra, the IIT in Mandi, the Weaving and Designing Centre in Kullu, the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Hamirpur, the ESI Medical College in Mandi, the Trade Centre in Baddi, the regional office of the Tea Board of India in Palampur, the Integrated Textile Parks Scheme, the Wool Board Scheme, the comprehensive handloom weavers package and the common effluent treatment plant were the Centre’s contribution to the state.

“The Congress has given special attention to the state and there is no question of ignoring interests,” he said.

Shimla, October 20
In an all-out bid to woo employees and the youth, particularly the jobless, the Congress yesterday came out with a plethora of promises. These include the granting of unemployment allowance, the setting up of a skill development corporation, free laptops for meritorious senior school students, the regularisation of contractual employees, para-teachers and PTA teachers under a policy and free bus travel for students.

The election manifesto covered almost every section of society and pledged to make Himachal Pradesh a part of the Indian growth story over the next five years.

It set some concrete targets on the development front, along with steps to ensure a responsive, transparent and accountable administration. It promised to set up an administrative commission for the reorganisation of districts. An unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 per month will be given to class XII and graduate unemployed youth whose total family income is less than Rs 2 lakh per month. The amount for handicapped graduate unemployed youth will be Rs 1,500 per month.

The service of contractual employees will be regularised in a year under a standing policy and a wage commission will be set up under the Finance Secretary to address wage anomalies and other service matters.

The state electricity board will be unbundled and its finances restructured after taking employees into confidence to bring about a complete change in management.

The minimum daily wage will be enhanced to Rs 200 per month and social security pension to Rs 600 per month from Rs 450 per month.

As many as 5,000 guides will be trained to promote tourism. Accident death insurance for below poverty line families will be raised to Rs 4 lakh. A skill development corporation will be set up with an investment of Rs 500 crore to tackle unemployment. Emphasis will be laid on skill and vocational enhancement to create 1 lakh job opportunities annually.

Under a new Rajiv Gandhi Digital Student Yojna, a total of 10,000 class X and class XII passouts who excel in the board examinations will be given laptops free. Students securing the first position in class VIII will be provided special learning laptops free.

A university dedicated to mass communication and journalism, a centre of excellence for the promotion of innovations and a pre-training institute for recruitment to Army and paramilitary forces will be set up.

Besides state leaders Virbhadra Singh, Vidya Stokes, Anand Sharma and Kaul Singh Thakur, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Punjab leader S Singla and AICC leaders Birender Singh and Anees Ahmad were present.

Solan, October 20
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today claimed that the Congress manifesto, promising corruption-free and transparent governance, was a bluff as the Centre was involved in a number of scams.

He alleged that the Rs 2,000 crore steel scrap scam, the Rs 8,000 crore Commonwealth Games scam, the Rs 176 crore 2G scam and the Rs 1.86 lakh crore coal scam were illustrations of the Congress’ track record.

Addressing a public rally here in favour of BJP candidate Sheila Kumari, he said it was surprising to hear that the Congress was promising a corruption-free government.

Criticising the Congress for promising 1 lakh employment opportunities, he said the government led by Virbhadra Singh had promised to provide a government job to a member of each family, but barely provided 3,386 jobs in five years.

Dhumal claimed that the Congress had done away with employment on compassionate grounds, decided not to provide jobs to the youth, not created new posts and downsized staff by 2 per cent every year.

Dhumal said the BJP government had provided 5,000 jobs on compassionate grounds and 50,000 overall. He reminded the people that the Centre had hiked the prices of liquefied petroleum gas.

He said they had provided laptops to schoolchildren and scholarships to girls who topped in senior secondary school examinations.

Sitting legislator Rajeev Bindal attacked Virbhadra Singh, saying said his party colleague had released the compact disc against him and his wife. He asked him who VBS was and how large chunks of government land were sold by his kin.

Bilaspur, October 20
HPCC president Virbhadra Singh has warned Congress rebels who have filed their papers against official candidates to either withdraw from the contest within time, retire from it at the earliest or face stringent action from the party high command.

He was addressing an election rally at Panjgaain for Bilaspur candidate Bambar Thakur, near here, last evening. — OC

Shimla, October 20
Efforts to persuade rebels to withdraw have proved futile as a majority of them refused to relent.

Despite efforts of BJP leaders PK Dhumal and Shanta Kumar and Congress leaders Virbhadra Singh, Anand Sharma and Birender Singh, a majority of rebels refused to relent.

The Congress expelled five rebels for six years. They are OP Ratan (Una), Rajesh Sharma (Kangra), Hoshiar Singh (Naina Devi), Swaroop (Kasauli) and Jitender Chandel (Bilaspur).

Prominent BJP rebels who can dent its vote bank are Sudha Sushant (Fatehpur), Roop Singh (Sundernagar), Pawan Kajal (Kangra), HN Kashyap (Solan), Tarsem Bharti (Shimla), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Manohar Dhiman (Indora) and Sham Lal (Mandi).

Congress rebels who can queer the pitch are Yog Raj (Pragpur-Jaswan), Prem Lata Thakur (Kullu), Dharamvir Dhami (Manali), OP Ratan (Una), Mast Ram (Karsog), Ishwar Dass (Ani), Karnesh Jung (Paonta Sahib), Amar Chand Pal (Arki), Swaroop (Kasauli), Jitender Chandel (Bilaspur) and Jyoti Sen (Kasumpti).