Shimla, Oct 25 (IANS): Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday said the Congress government in the state has stopped the common man-centric Jan Manch program owing to political agenda.

“In a state with difficult geographical conditions, Jan Manch was a unique program in itself. Under this initiative, the government used to reach out to the doorstep of the people with the entire administrative staff and solve their problems on the spot. Small and big matters for which the common man had to travel for several hours and hundreds of kilometres, that work was done comfortably without any expense sitting at home,” he said.

He added that the job of the government is to keep in mind the interests of the common man and provide his facilities to him easily.

“But there is no such mechanism in the present government through which people can convey their views to the government in an effective manner. From ministers to MLAs, the people of Himachal are in such a situation today where there is no one to listen to them. The Chief Minister should apologise to the people of Himachal for stopping the Jan Manch program,” he said.

Programmes like Jan Manch, he said, started by the previous BJP government made the government's reach to the common people very easy.

He said that thousands of people's complaints were resolved in a day.

“But as soon as the Sukhu government came to power, it made Jan Manch a victim of its political agenda. It was given such names which are not even possible to say in a civilised society. Today, after two years, it is doing what it had to do as soon as it came to power,” he said.

Thakur said 50,000 complaints were resolved on the spot through 256 programs of Jan Manch started by the previous government.

“This saved thousands of rupees for every complainant, which they would have spent on travel and paperwork. It is the job of any welfare state to take care of the interests of the people of the state and ensure that people do not face any kind of inconvenience in getting facilities,” the Leader of the Opposition added.