SHIMLA: Newly appointed Principal Adviser (IT and Innovation) to Chief Minister, Gokul Butail said they assure people of Himachal that innovation and job creation would be the top priority of the state government.
He thanked Congress High Command including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Rajeev Shukla for the new responsibility.
Butail is also joint secretary All-India Congress committee. He was also in the thick of the campaign during the recently concluded elections.
Butail was one of key players proposing the Rs 680 Crore Startup Fund as one of the 10 Guaranttees of the Congress manifesto.
Gokul Butail comes from Palampur and is a tea estate entrepreneur and is grandson of Congress veteran and tea estate baron Brij Bihari Butail and nephew of Palampur Congress MLA Ashish Butail.
Butail is considered close to Rahul Gandhi. He had headed the social media department in 2012 during the Virbhadra Singh regime.
Apart from Butail, the state Government also appointed Naresh Chauhan S/o late S.R. Chauhan of Shimla as Principal Advisor (Media) to the Chief Minister in the rank of Cabinet Minister.
Naresh Chauhan is a non-journo and has no media background as such. He has been a long associate and pal of Sukhu. He also had a stint as a contractor.
Chauhan was one of the Congress ticket seekers from Shimla Urban and enjoyed support of Sukhu.
But the Party preferred Harish Janartha, who finally won the seat by a handsome margin by ending the BJP raj from Shimla after 15 years.
Naresh Chauhan was the party spokesperson when Sukhu was the state Congress President.
He thanked the Congress High command for his new assignments saying that he has been working for the party for the last 35 years.
He would take the various government initiatives and polices to the people through this new assignment. 
Meanwhile, the government has also issued notification on allocation of departments with Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.
Chief Minister has kept Finance, general administration, home, planning, personnel, and others not allotted to any other minister.
