With an eye on the assembly elections later this year, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday announced several poll sops on the occasion of the 75th Himachal Day at the state-level function held at Chamba.
Chief Minister announced 50 per cent discount on travelling in HRTC buses for women, which would cost the exchequer Rs 60 crore. He announced that all power consumers upto 125 units would get zero bill from July 1, thus benefitting 11.5 lakh consumers, who would get a benefit of about Rs 250 crores.
He also announced that no water bill would be charged from all the families living in rural areas, thus extending a benefit of Rs 30 crore to them.The Chief Minister also announced Rs 5 crore for expediting work on Holiuttarala road and mini secretariat at Chamba.He announced beautification and improvement at Chamba town, besides taking steps to solve its traffic problem.Thakur said that the state also faced hard times due to Corona pandemic, but with the wholehearted support of the people, the state was able to control the situation and also simultaneously maintained the pace of development.
“All this has been possible due to the support of the Central government as PM Modi has a special attachment towards Himachal Pradesh,” said Thakur.While felicitating the people of the state, Chief Minister paid his respect to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for granting industrial package to the state during his tenure as Prime Minister of the country. “The Rs 3,500 crore Atal Rohtang tunnel was the vision and dream of Vajpayee, which has provided all weather connectivity to the land-locked Lahaul valley,” said Thakur. He also paid respect to the freedom fighters, first Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar, all the former CM’s of the state who led Himachal Pradesh on the path of progress.
The CM said that the State Government has focused on bringing positive changes in the lives of the people and ensuring rapid and balanced development of the state. He said that the State government in its very first cabinet meeting, reduced the age criteria for providing old age pension from 80 years to 70 years without any income limit, which has now further been reduced to 60 years. He said that Rs 436 crore were being spent on social security pension whereas today more than Rs 1,300 crore are being spent on it.CM said various schemes like the Mukhya Mantri Grihini Suvidha Yojna, Jan Mach, Sahara Yojna, CM Himcare scheme and Mukhya Mantri Shagun Yojna had benefitted the poorest of poor. He said his government remained committed towards the welfare of the people of the state.
