Congress rebel demands white paper from Himachal CM on jobs to youth in 14 months

Congress rebel Rana said though Sukhu cribbed about economic crunch in the state, he distributed cabinet ranks to his friends while ignoring the youth who voted for the Congress in the last Assembly elections.

Hamirpur/Shimla: Accusing the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh of not giving jobs to the youth, the party's rebel leader Rajinder Rana on Wednesday sought a white paper on employment given in the past 14 months.

"We repeatedly asked you to declare the results of examinations already held but instead of giving jobs to the youth, as promised in the Congress guarantees (five lakh jobs to youth), we were humiliated and step-motherly treatment was meted out to our assembly constituencies," he said in a Facebook post, content of which was also forwarded to the media persons.

Rana, who has been disqualified by the Assembly Speaker as an MLA, shot to limelight after defeating former BJP chief minister P K Dhumal in 2017 assembly polls.

He said he has been raising the issues of youth employment and had earlier written two letters to the chief minister in this regard.

Rana is one of the nine MLAs including six Congress rebels and three independents who voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha polls.

The Congress' six MLAs -- Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto besides Rana -- were disqualified by Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania for defying a whip to be present in the House and vote for government during the cut motions and budget.

Rana said though Sukhu cribbed about economic crunch in the state, he distributed cabinet ranks to his friends while ignoring the youth who voted for the Congress in the last Assembly elections.

He asked why the chief minister, who is raising the issue of dissident leaders staying in five-star hotels on every platform, is silent on the question of his official visit to Chandigarh in which he stayed in five-star hotels instead of the CM Suite at Himachal Bhawan.

In a statement issued here, Rana questioned the reason behind Sukhu sending security back from the five-star hotel and asked him the secret behind doing so.

Alleging "loot" by Sukhu's friends, Rana said those people who have "looted" under the chief minister's patronage would also be exposed in the coming time.