Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu took a swipe at the state's former chief minister, Jairam Thakur, and his government on Sunday, claiming that Jairam's government did not open a single office or primary health centre in the last 4.5 years while opening 590 institutions during the election campaign.


He went on to say that his government formed a committee of five MLAs and discovered that the primary health centres are administered by peons.


"Jairam Thakur government did not open any office or primary health centre in the last 4.5 years and at the time of polls, they opened 590 institutions. We formed a committee of 5 MLAs and found that the primary health centres are being run by peons," he was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI. 






"About 25-30 primary health centres were found running without even a peon. No recruitment was done. Rs 3,000 Cr is required to run these institutes, but HP already has a debt of Rs 75,000 Cr. You should have made a provision of Rs 3,000 Cr before opening them," the Himachal Pradesh said. 


He asserted that despite the prior chief minister's initiatives to open these institutions, the people yet rejected him.


"Despite opening these institutions during elections, people rejected you. We have come here to change the system. We will open these institutes but the first staff will be recruited," Sukhu said. 


On December 28, Sukhu will meet with employee association representatives in Shimla to address the old pension scheme (OPS). Despite a lot of sessions, the cabinet will make the final decision. It is expected that government employees covered by the new pension plan will receive relief in the following year.


The implementation of OPS, which they had been campaigning for during the previous BJP government, is eagerly awaited by the nearly 1.20 lakh government employees who will be covered by the new pension plan.


Ex-Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur Named Leader Of BJP Legislative Party: 


The former chief minister and six-time legislator Jai Ram Thakur was appointed head of the BJP legislative party on Sunday, news agency PTI reported citing a senior BJP functionary in the state.


In the November state elections, the Congress took Himachal Pradesh from the BJP, obtaining 40 seats in the 68-member assembly. The Saffron Party received 25 seats, while Independents received three.


Thakur was elected unanimously after all 24 BJP MLAs nominated his name for the position, according to Mangal Pandey, senior party leader and head of the election management committee, as per the PTI report.


Thakur, state BJP leader Suresh Kashyap, state BJP in-charge and co-in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna and Sanjay Tandon, and central observer Vinod Tawda attended a meeting of BJP MLAs here.


Thakur defeated Seraj by the highest margin in the recently concluded elections.


(With Inputs From Agencies)