Congress' statement on abolition of Tribunal is unfortunate: BJP

Shimla, Jul 16 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh BJP today said the statements of Congress leaders on abolition of State Administrative Tribunal were unfortunate and baseless.

In a joint press statement, State BJP President Jai Ram Thakur, Transport Minister Kishan Kapoor, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary said the BJP government was a well-wisher of government employees and welfare-oriented decisions were always made by rising above political considerations.

They said the government had abolished the State Administrative Tribunal as the Tribunal was not able to deliver justice to the employees since its inception.

''Congress is misleading the people on the issue whereas the fact is that cases of employees were pending from 1986 to till date in the tribunal and it was surprising that about 24 thousand cases were pending in the tribunal when it was abolished,'' they said.

The tribunal was referring back the original applications of the employees to departmental Secretaries for decisions. If the government itself had to deliver justice to the employees, then there was no need for tribunal, they added.

They said that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had clearly stated that state government would request Centre Government for setting up a bench of High Court at Dharamshala so that justice could be delivered to employees.

''We advise the congress leaders to refrain from issuing such baseless statements and cooperate with the government to ensure balanced development of every area of the state,'' they said.

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