Vacancy in Cabinet to be filled soon, says CM

Shimla, Aug 1 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said another minister will soon to inducted in the state cabinet to fill its vacancy.

''We can have twelve ministers in the cabinet, including myself.

We have eleven at present. So there is still a vacancy,'' he said while talking to mediapersons here after the oath ceremony of Mr Sujan Singh Pathania.

However, Mr Singh did not specify the name of the leader to be inducted or the exact date and time.

Referring to the re-induction of the chief parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary secretaries, he said the issue has been dropped as of now.

The Chief Minister said the decision to induct Mr Pathania had been taken quite sometime back. ''Now that one more vacancy has been created, another minister could be inducted soon.'' Refusing to speculate who could be behind the sting operation, which claimed Mr Bali's scalp he said he was not aware.

On being asked whether he had received a written request from Mr Bali for a judicial probe into the sting operation, he said as of now he had not received any but added the government could consider it.

Replying to a question on the presence of senior government officials in the ''indecent party'', he said India is a free country and anybody can go to any party.

Toeing Mr Bali's line that it was a frame up, he said that the party had been organized by one of his NRI friends for his family members and that the clippings shown on the news channel were selective.

UNI