Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while addressing and interacting with beneficiaries of Kangra Parliament constituency through video conferencing from Shimla today said that the State Government was ensuring that policies, programmes and welfare schemes initiated by the State Government reaches the target group so as to ensure socio-economic upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden in the State.Chief Minister said that organising such virtual rallies help the State Government to directly interact with the beneficiaries and also get feedback from them regarding the policies and programmes of the State Government for their welfare. He said that during these interactions, the Government gets good suggestions to make the programme more result oriented and effective.Jai Ram Thakur said that at times it has been felt that people could not derive benefit of welfare schemes due to lack of information regarding various schemes. He said that such interaction also goes a long way in sensitising the people about these schemes. He said that the very first decision of the present State Government was to reduce the age for getting old age pension without income limit from 80 years to 70 years. He said that this resulted in financial implication of over Rs 200 crore, but at the same time benefitted 2.90 lakh senior citizens of the State.Chief Minister said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Ujjawala Yojna for providing free gas connection to the poor women, but still lakhs of women of the State were not covered under this Scheme. He said that the State Government thus launched Himachal Pradesh Gharini Suvidha Yojna and provided free gas connections to about 2.76 lakh households. He said that with this, the State has become first State of the country with gas connection in every household.Jai Ram Thakur said that being himself from rural area, he understands the difficulty which common men faces in getting various issues resolved and works done. He said that for this, the State Government launched Jan Manch program and till date about 190 Jan Manch have been organised in the State and over 91 percent grievances have been redressed. He said that ‘Mukhyamantri Sewa Sankalp Helpline 1100' has further helped in redressal of public grievances through this service.
Chief Minister said that about 22 lakh people were covered under the Ayushman Bharat Yojna of the Union Government. He said that in order to cover the left out population of the State not covered under Ayushman Bharat Yojna, the State Government launched HimCare Yojna in the State and till date about 90,000 people have been treated under this Scheme by spending Rs. 90 crore. He said that Sahara Yojna has also being implemented in the State to provide financial assistance to the family with chronic ill patients. He said that under this Scheme, Rs. 3000 were being provided per month to such patients and has benefitted about 7000 families till date.Jai Ram Thakur said that the State Government for the first time has set a target to provide 10,000 houses to the poor homeless under various housing schemes in the State. He said that under Mukhyamantri Swavalamban Yojna, loans worth Rs. 13 crore were provided to the youth to start their own self employment ventures. He urged the youth to come forward to avail the benefits of this Scheme and become job providers instead of job seekers.Chief Minister said that the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected every section of the society. He said that an amount of about Rs. 180 crore was transferred into the accounts of over 8.75 lakh farmers under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna. He said that the State Government has provided an additional incentive of Rs. 1000 per month to every ASHA worker for the month of March to June. An incentive of Rs. 2000 per month would be provided per month for each ASHA workers for the month of July and August, he added. Newly appointed Chairman of State Wool Federation Trilok Kapoor while welcoming the Chief Minister to the virtual interaction with the beneficiaries said that the state Government has initiated various welfare schemes which have benefitted almost every section of the society. Deputy Commissioner Kangra Rakesh Prajapati and Deputy Commissioner Chamba Vivek Bhatia assured the Chief Minister that concerted efforts would be made to ensure that the developmental policies and programmes of the State Government reaches the person living at the lowest ebb. Several beneficiaries of different schemes also interacted with the Chief Minister and shared their views on the occasion. All the beneficiaries thanked the Chief Minister for welfare schemes that has made a sea change in their lives.State BJP President Suresh Kashyap was present at Shimla where as MLA Nagrota Arun Mehra and MLA Bhatiyat Bikram Jaryal also joined the virtual rally from their respective places.