Himachal’s former Chief Minister (CM) Virbhadra Singh has accused CM Jai Ram Thakur for misleading the public of the state in the name of employment issue.

“The previous Congress government had established the Skill Development Corporation, to provide employment to the youth in the state. In addition, more than 70,000 jobs were provided in the government sector. Similarly, jobs were provided to thousands of youth in the private sector through job fairs and other measures,” he said.

Expressing surprise, Virbhadra Singh took strong objection on the alleged statement of Jai Ram Thakur wherein he had stated that the unemployed youths were harassed owing to the feud between him and the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.

“The statement is devoid of facts and completely baseless,” he said, adding that the Jai Ram Thakur was making such statement in an effort to stop unemployment allowance.

He said that the previous Congress government had opened many avenues for employment in the state, thereby fulfilling the election promise and about 1.50 lakh youths were trained through the Skill Development Corporation.

Lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for politicising the ‘Gudia’ rape and murder Virbhadra Singh said that the law and order situation was under control during his rule in the state and it was his government that had been instrumental in handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the inquiry in the said case is still going on.

“The CBI is doing its job and no effort should be made to influence it,” he said.

Clarifying on the financial condition of the state, Virbhadra said, “When Congress came to power in 2012, they too inherited the debt trap in crores from the then previous Prem Kumar Dhumal lead BJP government.”

Advocating the BJP government not to mislead the public and instead focus on development, he said that the BJP will not get any political mileage by criticising the previous Congress government.
“It is to be seen, how efficient the new government will be in providing jobs to the unemployed youth in the state,” he said.