Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh said that the Congress Prime Ministers were attached to the State and did lot for its development. It was Indira Gandhi, who carved out the Statehood status for Himachal. Since then Himachal developed leap and bounds and development was a continuous process. He said that it was due to them we are the most developed hill state in the country.The remotest corners of the State were connected with roads and efforts were afoot to connect every village with motorable roads, he said. Today, there was 35000 kilometres of road length in the State which was hardly 288 kilometres when Himachal was formed. All the villages had been electrified and there were hardly any habitations which were bereft of drinking water facility.He said today as many as six medical colleges were there in the State, out of which the medical college in Chamba, Hamirpur and at Nahan would be made functional soon. Besides, the ESIC medical college and hospital at Ner Chowk in Mandi district would also be made operational, as the MoU had been signed by the State Government with ESIC, to handover the same to the State Government last Monday. He said that AIIMS like institution was coming in Bilaspur which would strengthen the health sector in the State.
The Chief Minister said that during the last three years as many as 27000 people were given employment in government sector alone. Besides, two engineering colleges were opened, the one in Jeuri near Sarahan and the other at Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra. An Indian Institute of Management was being opened at Dhaula Kuan in Sirmaur. We want every Himachali youth to be employed, he said adding that Rs. 500 crore Skill Development Allowance Scheme was being implemented for skill development of unemployed youth. Under this scheme, allowance of Rs. 1000 per month is being provided to unemployed youth and Rs. 1500 to youth with special abilities.The Chief Minister stressed for employability of the youth and suggested the means for self dependant. He said that the youth should also adopt growing off-season vegetables as it was the easy method of self employment.The Chief Minister inaugurated Government Degree College Shri Naindevi Ji and also declared the starting of classes from this academic session in the college and inaugurated circular road at Shri Nainadevi ji completed with a cost of Rs 2.40 crore. He said that Himachal Pradesh had achieved excellence in field of education, and today there were more than 15534 schools in government sector whereas the private schools were also contributing in providing education to the youth. “My priority was to make Himachal an Educational hub and as of today there were 115 degree colleges in the State and we had achieved 88 percent literacy rate which was second highest in the country after Kerala”, he said.
Earlier, he laid foundation stone of sub-tehsil building at Namhol to cost Rs. 1.1 crore, foundation stone of PHC building at Rajpura to cost Rs. 40.13 lakh, foundation stone of car parking at Shri Nainadevi Ji, to be constructed with an outlay of Rs 1.06 crore having capacity to park as many as 30 vehicles and foundation of Community Health Centre building at Ghawandhal to cost Rs 2.38 crore having 30 bed capacity.Earlier, Chairman, Twenty Point Programme Implementation and Monitoring Committee, Shri Ram Lal Thakur, welcomed and honoured the Chief Minister. He thanked the Chief Minister for announcing to start classes in government degree college at Shri Nainadevi ji and laying foundation stone of the car parking to facilitate the pilgrims visiting the shrine. He also credited the development of the area to successive Congress regimes under the Chief Ministership of Shri Virbhadra Singh. He said during the BJP regime there was no permanent posting doctor in Nainadevi ji as the doctors were only sent on deputation.
He questioned the BJP, that as to why the CHC was withdrawn from Nainadevi ji at Ghawandhal. He thanked the Chief Minister for getting the SDM court building constructed at Swarghat and Tehsil Welfare Office. He urged the BJP to appreciate the State Government for the development taking place in the constituency and not to criticise the same for the sake of criticism.He urged the Chief Minister for widening circular road till the parking complex the foundation stone of which was laid today and for upgrading the CHC on completion to 50 bed hospital.Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Shri Rajesh Dharmani, also spoke on the occasion. He showered praises on the Chief Minister for working around the clock for welfare of the people of the State. He came down heavily on NDA for inflation and rice in prices of pulses and other essential commodities. He termed the promises of NDA as ‘Modi Ke Jumle’ which has cheated the people of the country.Chairman Other Constructions Welfare Board, Bawa Hardeep Singh, Ex-MLAs, Shri Babu Ram Gautam and Shri Tilak Raj, Chairman, Zila Parishad, Shri Amarjeet Singh Banga, Member, Zila Parishad, Shri Mast Ram, DCCPresident, Shri Kamlendar Kashyap, Secretary, HPCC, Vikas Thakur, President Mahila Congress, Ms. Anjana Dhiman, were also present on the occasion amongst others.