BJP top leaders to meet PM on industrial package issue: Dhumal

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HimVani

New Delhi: Accusing the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to BJP-ruled states, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Monday said he along with top party leaders would meet the Prime Minister to demand extension of the industrial package to his state. “The industrial package for Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand was withdrawn before its term ended. But it continues for Jammu and Kashmir where Congress is sharing power with National Conference,” Dhumal said, adding that such “step-motherly” treatment to states ruled by non-UPA parties could create “problems”.

To a question on whether Union ministers from the state Anand Sharma and Virbhadra Singh of Congress were helping him in restoration of the package, he said Sharma has “at least written a letter to the Prime Minister. Singh said he supports the package, but whether he has written to the Prime Minister in this regard, I am not aware,” he said.

The industrial package for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir was introduced in 2002 by the then NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While the package was to end in 2013, Dhumal claimed that it was withdrawn this year itself. He claimed that if the Centre refuses to restore the package, people of the state will launch an agitation.

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