Hamirpur (HP), August 2 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Saturday criticised the Himachal Pradesh government for restarting lottery in the state.
In a strongly worded statement, he said that this “unfortunate decision” will lead the state towards ruin and demanded immediate rollback of the decision in the larger interest.
The Himachal Pradesh cabinet had on Thursday given its nod for operation of lotteries in the state.
Criticising this, Dhumal said, “Thirty years ago, on April 17, 1996, the high court imposed a complete ban on the sale of single-digit lotteries in Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, a year after I first became the chief minister, our BJP government unanimously decided to stop the entire lottery system.” Dhumal said it was not just a decision, but a far-sighted idea to save the entire province from ruin.
At that time, all categories of employees, labourers and youths in the state had begun buying lottery tickets in large numbers. Several serving and retired employees lost their salaries and retirement earnings in buying lottery. The workers’ money was at stake and several families were destroyed, Dhumal recollected, adding that the then government had banned lottery to prevent people from getting addicted to this curse.
Dhumal said that in 2004, the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh resumed the lottery system, but banned it again after realising its ill effects.
He pointed out that the current Congress government has come to power promising to announce one lakh jobs in its first cabinet meeting and to provide five lakhs jobs in five years. However, nothing concrete has been done yet, and as a result people are facing various problems, Dhumal said.
He warned that the lottery system would take a toll over 2.30 lakh government employees and about 10 lakh unemployed youths in the state.
Meanwhile, Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said that an online lottery is being introduced in the state and there would be transparency.
The Union government has given permission to the online lottery system and it is being allowed in other states also, Negi added. PTI COR BPL RUK RUK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.