Virbhadra Singh-led govt cheating poor: BJP

The opposition BJP today accused the Virbhadra Singh-led government in Himachal Pradesh of "cheating" poor people by not providing subsidised food items to them.

Despite being in power both at the Centre and in the state, the Congress party is denying people subsidised food grains, BJP MLA and former state Food Minister Ramesh Dhawala told reporters here.

During the erstwhile BJP rule, the state government had provided subsidised food items to the poor even as the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre worked on the policy of differentiation to provide food grains, Dhawals claimed.

He further accused the government of being "silent" over rampant black-marketing of kerosene and cooking oil in the state.