Himachal CM seeks opposition's cooperation ahead on Assembly

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today appeared unfazed in the face of corruption allegations and recent ED summons, and hoped the opposition will cooperate with him in charting out development plans during the Assembly session beginning tomorrow.
"Both, the ruling and opposition parties, will discuss development matters and I hope that the session would go well in Tapovan Parisar of Vidhan Sabha in Dharamsala," Singh said.
The chief minister said he was hopeful that the oppositionwill cooperate in running the House smoothly and that various issues of development would be discussed in "better interest of the people of the state".

The five-day Himachal Assembly Session is beginning tomorrow.
The senior Congress leader has been issued summons by Enforcement Directorate in connection with its probe against him and his associates for alleged money laundering.
The agency is working to investigate the allegation that Singh and his family members allegedly amassed wealth of Rs 6.1 crore between 2009-11, disproportionate to his known sources of income, while serving as the Union Minister of Steel.

Earlier, Singh was given a rousing reception on reaching Dharamsala, a day before the beginning of the Assembly session.
The chief minster ducked questions about corruption allegations against him.

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Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker BBL Butail raised questions over money being spent on maintaining Tapovan complex throughout the year when only short duration sessions are being held.
He told reporters at Palampur, on the eve of the five-day Session at Tapovan complex, that holding just four or five days session in the sprawling complex does not justify the expenses incurred on maintenance of the complex for whole of the year.
Replying to a question, Butail said,"I am not opposed to short session. But the expenses of maintaining the premises for the entire year for short session is not justified."

The Assembly session beginning tomorrow is expected to be stormy as the opposition BJP will rake up the corruption charges levelled against the chief minister.
The raids at the house of the chief minister and his summoning by ED is expected to give fodder to the opposition party to launch an attack on Singh.
The BJP has drawn two-prong strategy to corner the government in the House and mobilise the people by mounting attack outside Vidhan Sabha.
Butail said that 200 starred and 81 unstarred questions have been received from the members and hoped that the House would peacefully conduct the business.

He said that recentlya team of secretaries from the Centre had visited Himachal Assembly and had proposed setting up of an academy at Tapovan to train Assembly staff of other states as well as Parliament.
He said that if this proposal is approved, Tapovan complex would be utilised throughout the year.
Butail also said that the e-initiative taken by the Assembly had made almost 90 per cent of functioning paperless and saved paper worth Rs 15 crore and also cut short the time span.