Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today visited the Kotla village in Banjar assembly segment of district Kullu which was razed to the ground due to devastating fire on late Sunday night. He met the affected families who lost everything in the fire and announced a sum of rupees two crore for construction of houses. This amount also includes Rs. 50 lakh for renovation of the temples of the local deities. He assured of all possible assistance in the future as well and exhorted the people to renovate the temples in the ancient hill architecture.Shri Virbhadra Singh said he was deeply pained over the incident as large number of families had gone homeless. The government would leave no stone unturned to rehabilitate them and the sufferers would also be given adequate relief as per the relief manual, besides other things of daily use. The people of the State were with them in this hour of grief and if need be, additional financial assistance would be provided to re-built the houses, he said.
The Chief Minister said proper mechanism would be followed for laying water pipes, sewerage, electric poles and other facilities in Kotla village. He advised the people not to construct the houses wall to wall and also not to keep the fodder in the houses which acts as fuel during fire incidents. He also appealed them to voluntarily give land for construction of roads. He said that the link road to the village would be maintained by the public works department.
He said there was no dearth of funds and the necessary assistance apart from the money announced would be provided as per need to give much needed relief to the people by the State Government. The Chief Minister also appealed to the NGO’s to come forward in this hour of grief and extend all possible help to the villagers.He also listened to the grievances of the people at Kotla.Co-operative and Ayurveda Minister Shri Karan Singh, Deputy Commissioner Shri Rakesh Kanwar were also present on the occasion amongst others.