When I became the Chief Minister in 1999, we stopped the entire lottery system: Dhumal
• At that time, employees’ salaries, savings of youth, pensions of retirees and workers’ money were at stake, families were destroyed.
• The ban was imposed so that people do not get addicted to the curse of lottery
• BJP strongly condemns this decision and demands the government not to implement the lottery system
Senior BJP leader, former State President and former Chief Minister Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal condemned the most important decision of the four-day Mahamanthan Cabinet meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Government, re-launching the lottery in the State, and said that this unfortunate decision will only lead Himachal Pradesh towards ruin.
Prof Dhumal said that 30 years ago on 17 April 1996, the Hon’ble High Court had imposed a complete ban on the sale of single digit lottery running in the state. After this, when I myself became the Chief Minister of the state for the first time in 1998, the next year in 1999, our BJP government decided unanimously that the entire lottery system would be closed in Himachal Pradesh.
He said that this decision was not just a decision, but a far-sighted thought to save the entire state from ruin. At that time, employees of all categories, retired employees, laborers and youth of Himachal Pradesh had started buying lottery in large numbers, due to which the salaries of employees, savings of youth, pension of retirees and money of laborers were at stake and many families and homes were ruined. The lottery was stopped in public interest so that the people of Himachal Pradesh do not get addicted to this cursed lottery.
At that time, many employees and retirees lost their salary and retirement earnings in the lottery.
Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal said that in 2004, the Congress government restarted the lottery and after that, the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh imposed a complete ban on this lottery system. Perhaps the former Chief Minister also understood that lottery is a curse. He said that at that time, the state used to earn only about four to five crores from this.
He said that at present a total of 231180 employees are working in Himachal Pradesh, out of which 160000 are permanent employees. Similarly, there are 9 to 10 lakh unemployed people in Himachal Pradesh who are in great danger from this lottery system, due to which their lives can be at stake. The Congress government of Himachal came to power on the promise of giving permanent jobs to 1 lakh youth in the first cabinet and 5 lakh youth in 5 years, but the way the reality is coming out, Himachal Pradesh is becoming a stronghold of liquor, chitta, bhang, intoxication and lottery. The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly condemns this decision and demands from the government to withdraw such anti-people decisions with immediate effect.
