HAMIRPUR: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said it was on 11th December 2022 this government put derailed system back on track.
Facilitating People of the State on its 53rd Statehood Day held at Hamirpur today, he said people of Himachal Pradesh have contributed immensely in the development journey of the state.
He also mentioned of the enormous contribution of the first Chief Minister, Dr. YS Parmar in the progress of the hill state.
As a part of ceremony he unfurled the National Flag and took salute from the contingents of Police, Home guards, Jawans of IRB Skoh, NCC cadets, Scouts & Guides led by DSP Ankit Sharma during an impressive march past.
As per the Government's pledge for zero tolerance against corruption, stringent measures were being adopted to eliminate this social evil, Sukhu asserted.
The suspension of Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission, which was the hub of corruption and was selling jobs, was the first in this direction against corruption.
"Now the selection will be ensured purely on the basis of merit, in a fair and transparent manner" reiterated the Chief Minister.
Even the economic health of the state was in utter disarray because of the extravagant spending by the previous government that has led to a debt of around Rs 75000 crore, he sad.
Apart from this, the liability of paying the arrears of Rs. 4,430 crore to the employees, Rs. 5,226 crore of pensioners and Rs. 1,000 crore DA of both is on the present State Government.
As many as 900 institutions were opened by BJP in the last 9 months of its tenure, without any budgetary provision, due to which the state has to bear an additional burden of Rs. 5,000 crore.
Moreover, about Rs. 8,000 crore of NPS is held up with the Central Government.
Despite all these challenges, the State Government has fulfilled its commitment to restore the old pension scheme, thereby benefitting 1.36 lakh employees, said the Chief Minister.
Restoring the OPS was not a political decision, but the State Government intends to protect the self-esteem of the Government employees, Sukhu said.
Besides providing them the social security as they play a pivotal role in the development of State.
The Government was forced to take some tough decisions for generating the resources to fulfill its promises, but tough decisions are inevitable, said the Chief Minister.
The Government has set up Chief Minister's Sukh-Ashray Sahayata Kosh with an outlay of Rs. 101 crore for providing higher education to beneficiaries of the Kosh for Vocational training in engineering colleges, IIIT, NIT, IIM, IIT, polytechnic institutes, nursing and degree colleges' etc.
The Government has decided to open Rajiv Gandhi Model Day-Boarding Schools in each assembly constituency in a phased manner for providing education to the poor children.
Stressing on the employment generation, the Chief Minister said that job-oriented education was the need of the hour.
The Government has decided to introduce Technical courses, such as Robotics, Block Chain Technology, Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the curriculum of ITI, Polytechnic, and Engineering Colleges.
Besides, the Government intends to boost the tourism sector in order to provide employment opportunities to the local people on a large scale and the tourism projects will be linked with the start-up scheme for the youth.
We are also trying to promote investment in the private sector and the government will bring a new investment policy, aiming at an ease of doing business.
The Chief Minister said that the government has set a target to harness hydropower, hydrogen, and solar energy in order to preserve the state's environment and to make Himachal Pradesh the country's first green energy state by the year 2025. Apart from this, impetus would be given to Agriculture and allied sectors.
He said that robotic surgery will be available in IGMC, Tanda, and Hamirpur Medical College, soon.
He also honored the wards of freedom fighters and army personnel, specially abled during the function.
A colorful cultural program was also presented by specially abled and other children. The Chief Minister also distributed prizes to the participants of cultural program and lauded their efforts.
