An amount of Rs. 9.88 crore was distributed as the first installment for rehabilitation of 1388 disaster affected families of Sirmaur district by Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu at Nahan today.
He distributed a sum of Rs. 1.98 crore for 66 completely damaged houses with first installment of Rs. 3 lakh to each family, Rs. 6.37 crore for 718 partially damaged houses, Rs 1.15 crore for damage to 292 cow sheds and Rs. 38 lakh to other affected people.
Addressing a well attended public gathering on this occasion, the Chief Minister said that due to financial mismanagement of the previous BJP government, the state was presently going through a difficult phase. No attention was paid to generate the resources for the State and instead the BJP government took a loan of Rs 14 thousand crore in the year 2022-23.
Taking these and many other issues into consideration, the present government presented its first budget with an eye on resource generation and to make the State self-reliant in the coming four years and the most prosperous state of the country in the coming next ten years.
The Chief Minister said that work on Renuka Dam would start soon, on which discussions have been held with the Delhi Government and the Central Government. He said that a request was also made to the Central Government to fund the power component in Kishau Hydroelectric Project on the basis of water component in 90:10 ratio between the Union and the State Government or to provide interest free loan facility for 50 years in all the power components.
"I have also requested the Union Government for increasing the royalty in the Dhaula Siddh, Luhri and Sunni hydro power projects which would generate adequate revenue for the state", said Sh. Sukhu. Speaking on the status of Hattis of the Transgiri region, the Chief Minister stated that the notification issued by the Central Government declaring Hatti community was not clear in its content and purpose.
The State Government sought clarification in this regard from the centre and after 12 hours of getting the clarification, the State Government issued the notification for providing Scheduled Tribe status to this community.
Launching an attack on the BJP for playing with the future of the youth, the Chief Minister said that it was during the BJP regime that the HP Staff Selection Commission Hamirpur had become a hub of corruption, where papers were being sold to the selected few candidates leaving the rest of the youth in dilemma.
He said that the present state government disbanded this commission and now 'Rajya Chayan Aayog' had been set up in Hamirpur to ensure impartiality and transparency in the recruitment process to do justice with youth.
The government has taken many important decisions in its one year tenure. To provide social security to the government employees, the government restored the old pension scheme for 1.36 lakh employees in its first cabinet meeting despite the financial crunch.
Secondly, the government launched Mukhya Mantri Sukh Ashray Yojana for orphan children and a law was enacted to provide the status of 'Children of the State' to as many as four thousand orphan children wherein the entire cost of their higher education including hostel expenses were to be borne by the Government.
Thirdly, fulfilling the guarantee, the Rs. 680 crore Rajiv Gandhi Start-up Yojna has been started to provide self-employment opportunities to the youth by providing them 50 percent subsidy for purchase of e-vehicles and as of now one thousand youth have applied for e-taxis.
Besides, the second phase of the start-up Yojna has also been approved, under which the youth will be given financial assistance for setting up Solar power projects of 100, 200, 500 kilowatts, which will provide assured income to the youth.
Recalling the natural calamity, the Chief Minister said that the State suffered massive losses in the worst ever disaster of the decade in July and August of 2023. Around 500 persons lost their lives and about 16 thousand houses were damaged.
Facing tough times with no fiscal support from the centre, the State government announced a special economic package of Rs 4500 crore to give relief to the disaster affected and also enhanced the relief amount manifold by changing the norms.
To meet out the damages the state government has filed claims worth Rs 9000 crore as per the rules to the Centre, he said, adding that he met several senior leaders including the Prime Minister for a special package to the State. However, till day, not a single State BJP leader came forward to help the disaster affected people and asked for financial help from the Central Government.
The Chief Minister said that under Dr Y.S Parmar Student Loan Scheme, loan up to Rs 20 lakh was being provided at one percent interest. He said that in the coming budget, he is going to bring a scheme to increase the income of farmers.
To improve the level of education, English medium will be started in government schools from class one. The school management will also decide the uniform. Guest lecturers will be recruited and no school will be left without a teacher. Efforts are being made to improve health facilities.
On the demand of the local MLA, the Chief Minister announced the approval of the road to all the four settlements from Main Road Burampapri, Palian Bhogpur Simbalwala to Gumti Bus Stand, Gumti and also announced the construction of a double lane bridge over the Roon river on the Bhogpur Simbalwala road.
About 9000 people from three panchayats of the area will benefit from this. He also announced construction of a double lane bridge over Pathrala ka Khala on Khajurna Bikram Bagh Suketi Kala Amb road. He said that this will facilitate about 13000 people of four panchayats of the area.
The Chief Minister also announced construction of a road from Banog Dhar Kyari to Sabzi Mandi Kanshiwala. He said that this road will benefit about 86,000 people of Nahan city, Nahan Panchayat, Sen Ki Ser and Ambwala Sainwana area.
Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan welcomed Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on his visit to Sirmaur district and said that historic decisions were taken during his one year tenure. There has been a historic increase in the compensation amount for the disaster affected.
Not only this, the Chief Minister donated an amount of Rs 51 lakh from his savings to the Aapda Rahat Kosh and set an example in front of the entire country. Harshwardhan Chauhan said that BJP MLAs did not support the proposal to declare the disaster in Himachal Pradesh as a national disaster and only did politics.
Recruitment is being done for 20 thousand jobs in the government sector. He said that due to the hard work of Congress party workers, Congress has got three out of five assembly seats in Sirmaur district. The Industries Minister said that the Chief Minister was fulfilling every demand of Sirmaur district adding that the Chief Minister has provided Rs 250 crore to Sirmaur district through PWD and Rs 150 crore from the Jal Shakti Department.
The Minister said that after receiving the reply from the Central Government for providing tribal status to the Hatti community, the Chief Minister got the notification issued in a single day. He said that the matter of granting tribal status to the Hatti community has gone to the High Court, but the state government will fight this battle till the Apex Court.
Deputy Speaker, Vinay Kumar and MLA Ajay Solanki also spoke on the occasion and thanked the Chief Minister for announcements done and considering the genuine long pending demands of the area. On this occasion, former MLAs Kunwar Ajay Bahadur and Kirnesh Jung, District Congress Committee President Anand Parmar, senior Congress leaders and representatives of various Panchayats were present.