'Himachal is in complete crisis': Former CM Jairam Thakur as Sukhu govt delays salaries, pensions

Himachal Pradesh appears to be facing a serious economic crisis. The state government headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, for the first time in the state's history, did not release the salary and pension of over 2 lakh government employees on September 1. 

Today, former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur said that Himachal has more government employees than any other state in proportion to its population. "So we must accept the fact that a large part of the provisions made in our budget, about 39-40 per cent, goes into pensions and salaries."

Thakur said the government employees have not received their salary, and the pensioners have not received their pension. "If we look at this situation, then the state is really going through a very bad phase economically and in such a situation, the government has very few resources, there are some means through which the state can be pulled out." 

Targeting the chief minister for hiking the prices of some of the commodities, Thakur said the way Sukhu is constantly increasing the price of diesel, increasing the price of cement, increasing the price of ration and increasing all the things, increasing the fare of buses and are imposing taxes, "I feel that the burden should not fall on the poor people". 

The former chief minister suggested that the state should take steps to increase revenue and stop wasteful expenditure. "But the reality is that today the situation in Himachal Pradesh is very difficult from the economic point of view and Himachal is in a complete crisis," he said while speaking to reporters.

While the government employees of Himachal are concerned about the delay in their salary, Sukhu on Tuesday said there is no financial crisis and steps are afoot to bring financial discipline. The employees and pensioners normally get their salary and pension respectively on the first of every month. 

However, they have not received them even days after the due date. This delay in payment is a cause of concern as the salaried employees have to meet their expenses, said office bearers of the Federation of Secretarial Employees unions on Tuesday. 

"In my 30-35 years of service, I have never seen such a condition. The employees are likely to get salaries on September 5 and pensioners would get pension on September 10," said federation president Sanjeev Sharma, adding that the pensioners who have limited money but considerable medical expenses are the worst hit. 

The chief minister, however, said there is no financial crisis and steps are being taken to maintain financial discipline. "We are taking steps for resource mobilisation to make the state self-reliant... We want to have a discussion on financial mismanagement and tell the 75 lakh people of the state that how the double engine government (BJP) had plundered the state exchequer by giving free electricity and water and opening over 600 health and educational institutions," he said. 

Jai Ram Thakur had on Saturday said the state government had raised loans worth over Rs 24,000 crore during the past 20 months, while the previous BJP government had raised loans amounting Rs 19,600 crore during the five-year tenure.

(With inputs from PTI)