Congress fulfilled Rs 1,500 promise to Himachal women, BJP opposed it: Kuldeep Singh Pathania

Dharamsala, May 2

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania and Mandi Lok Sabha candidate Vikramaditya Singh were welcomed by Congress workers led by Kewal Singh Pathania, chief whip of the party in the Assembly, on their arrival at the Gaggal Airport today.

Pathania, while talking to newsmen, said that the state government fulfilled the guarantee of Rs 1,500 to women. The BJP opposed this scheme which made it clear that the BJP only pretended to be a well-wisher of women to get their votes. If BJP was truly a well-wisher of women, the party should have thanked Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and would not have stopped women from filling the forms for taking benefit under the scheme. The BJP did not support the scheme but started protesting against it, he said.

Pathania said, “Employees across the country are demanding the old pension scheme (OPS) but the BJP government at the Centre is anti-employee. In Rajasthan, the Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot implemented the OPS. As soon as the BJP government was formed in Rajasthan, it issued a notification in the first Cabinet meeting to abolish the OPS. The Central Government is also against giving the OPS.”

On the other hand, as soon as the Congress formed government in Himachal, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu fulfilled the promise made to the employees of the state by implementing the first guarantee of old pension scheme in the first Cabinet meeting.

“The Congress does what it says. Today, it has been 10 years since the BJP government at the Centre came to power in the country but it has not fulfilled any of the promises made to the people. It has only lied to the people to grab their votes. Today, neither has black money come back, nor has inflation come down. The previous Congress government gave LPG cylinder at Rs 450 to the people, but today the Modi government is giving gas cylinder at a cost of Rs 1,200,” he said.

The BJP enforced demonetisation and harassed people by making them stand in queues for their own money, Pathania said.