2006-07 Budget the best so far, says IPH minister

Shimla, Mar 7 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Minister Kaul Singh Thakur today lauded Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for presenting the ''best Budget of the state'' so far.

Talking to reporters here, he said the 2006-07 Budget presented in the Assembly on March three was the best so far.

Mr Thakur said the three years of the Congress government in office had achieved spectacular achievements and unprecedented development, which had rattled the opposition BJP.

Their charge sheet against the state government was only an attempt to malign the government in which they had failed miserably, he said.

The IPH minister had called the press conference to reply to charges of corruption leveled against him in the charge sheet the state BJP unit submitted to the Governor on Sunday.

The charges sheet had accused the Congress Government of widespread corruption in the state, while leveling specific charges of corruption against six ministers, including the IPH minister.

The IPH minister said as far as the allotment of petrol pumps to the relatives of the ministers was concerned, the oil companies were now allotting petrol pumps on demand and not on political influence.

UNI AS DP CH RN1627