Dhumal dismisses CM's reply on Budget debate

Shimla, Mar 14 (UNI) Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister P K Dhumal today termed Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's reply on Budget as ''most unsatisfactory and a mere formality as it did not touch upon the vital issues of corruption, the worsening law and order situation, price rise and unemployment issues raised by the BJP.'' Addressing a press conference after staging a walk out from the assembly, he said the total ignorance of vital issues by the Chief Minister, in his reply, was ''most unfortunate''.

Mr Dhumal said the Mr singh did not even touch upon the corruption issue and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, while ''complicating the unemployment issue through a quagmire of statistics.'' Mr Singh also sidelined the critical issue of price rise of essential commodities by claiming that the market fee was reduced from two percent to one per cent, however, it was the Congress government itself that had raised the market fee to two per cent in 2003-04, he said.

MORE UNI AS HS VD RN1952