Dharamsala, Dec 17 (IANS) As part of the state government’s austerity drive, the Himachal Pradesh state assembly will work on Saturday instead of taking a holiday, a minister said Thursday.
“The winter session has been rescheduled bearing the austerity drive in mind. However, the sittings of the house will remain as per the original schedule (six sittings),” Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.P. Nadda told IANS.

Earlier, the final session had been scheduled for Dec 21 (Monday) and there was a two-day weekend break between the last two sessions. Now, the session will conclude Dec 19 (Saturday), the minister said.

The state government has already proposed a huge cut in “wasteful expenditure” during the winter assembly session in Dharamsala, about 250 km from state capital Shimla.

“Now all the legislators and government officials have been directed to go back to their places immediately after the conclusion of the session (Saturday). Earlier, they had to stay for two more days in Dharamsala to attend the last session,” a senior official said.

“By rescheduling the session, the government has saved lakhs of rupees in food, beverages and hotel bills,” he added.

The government is cautious this time about the expenditure during the assembly session,

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told IANS.

“We have issued clear-cut guidelines to all the departments to reduce wasteful expenditure as much as possible. This is just an initiative to save public money. If we succeed, it could set a trend for future governments,” he said.

According to Dhumal, the money saved during the session will be used for welfare schemes.