Himachal government running under a tight financial position, admits GS Bali

Dharamsala, September 8, 2014: Himachal Pradesh government has invited suggestions from the general public of the state to curb the expenditure and to increase the funds of the state, as this small hill state of Himachal Pradesh is facing one of its worst financial crises. Stating this in Dharamsala on Monday the Himachal Pradesh Transport Mister G S Bali said, “People can send their views to any of the four members of the cabinet subcommittee made for the purpose or they may submit their suggestions to secretary finance Shimla.”  He said that the government is running under a tight financial position, “But still we are better than many states of India.”
Official sources said that the state coffers are virtually empty and have hardly any money to pay salaries to its 261,000 employees and 139,000 pensioners. Expenditure under the two heads during 2014-15 has been estimated at Rs.11,143 crore. Revenue receipts for 2014-15 are estimated at Rs.16,522 crore against the total  expenditure at Rs.23,613 crore.
Chef Minister Vir Bhadra Singh, recently constituted a cabinet sub-committee headed by irrigation and public health minister Vidya Stokes for resource mobilisation and economic measures to redeem the situation. The other members of the committee are Health Minister Koul singh Thakur,  Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and Transport Minister G S Bali.
Official sources said that Vir Bhadra Singh defended his case in front of BJP lead central leadership a number of times in the past few months for a special financial package from the central government to overcome a whopping debt of Rs. 30,000 crore, but was not successful.
Bali said, “We are also inviting suggestions to meet the financial crises from the Leader of the Opposition party in Himachal and state Congress chief.” He said a new policy shall be made on these suggestions to fix the healthy financial state of Himachal for the next 50 years.
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