DW BUREAU / Shimla

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday announced that the state government will give Rs 1,500 per month to women in the age group of 18-60 years from the 2024-25 financial year. This was one of the 10 'guarantees' promised by the Congress ahead of the assembly polls.

Addressing the media here, Sukhu said that a sum of Rs 800 crore would be spent on the initiative -- Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojna -- annually and over five lakh women would be covered under it. Officials told PTI that modalities for giving Rs 1,500 to women are being finalised.

The chief minister said that with this, five out of 10 poll promises have been fulfilled and reiterated that the old pension scheme was restored benefitting 1.36 lakh employees of the state.

Sukhu said that he had decided to announce the scheme during his Budget reply in the state assembly but could not do so due to chaos in the House.

Terming the announcement of the CM as another "lie", Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said there was no provision of providing Rs 1,500 monthly to women in the Budget passed recently.

How would women will get Rs 1,500 per month from April 1 during the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections, Thakur asked, and accused Sukhu of misleading the women ahead of the parliamentary polls.

In a statement, he said that the Congress had promised to give Rs 1,500 per month to 22 lakh women in the 18-60 age group in the state and questioned whether this amount would only be given to 4.55 lakh women already getting social

security pension.

The chief minister said that about 2.45 lakh women in the state, who were earlier getting pension of Rs 1,100 or and Rs 1,150 per month, are already being given Rs 1,500 per month.

Five poll promises, including Rajiv Gandhi Startup Yojna to create self employment opportunities for the youth, starting English medium education from class 1 in all government schools from the next academic session and increasing minimum support price of cow milk, have been fulfilled, Sukhu said.
(editor@dailyworld.in)