Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu Monday announced that his government will give Rs 1,500 per month to women in the age group of 18 to 60 years from the the 2024-25 financial year, fulfilling one of the 10 ‘guarantees’ promised by the Congress ahead of the assembly polls.
“Every woman above the age of 18 will get Rs 1,500 under the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojna. We will spend Rs 800 crore on the initiative annually and over five lakh women would be covered under it,” Sukhu said.
“With this announcement, we have fulfilled five out of the 10 election guarantees. I personally wanted to announce this scheme on the day when the state’s Budget was passed, but due to the ruckus in the Assembly, dropped the idea.
This scheme will benefit every family in the state,” the CM said, adding his government had initiated the first phase of the scheme from February 1, providing Rs 1,500 to the women in Lahaul- Spiti district, and is now expanding it across state.
The opposition BJP, however, termed the announcement as another “lie”, with Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur saying there was no provision of providing Rs 1,500 monthly to women in the Budget passed recently.
“How would women get Rs 1,500 per month from April 1 when the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections are implemented,” 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.
