Himachal Pradesh CM lays foundation stone of Rs 5.36 crore BDO office building in Kangara's Rait

Kangara (Himachal Pradesh) [India], December 21 : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the office building of the Block Development Officer to be constructed with an outlay of Rs 5.36 crore at Rait in Shahpur assembly constituency of Kangra district.
Addressing a well-attended public meeting on this occasion, the Chief Minister said that the state government has fulfilled three of its guarantees during its one-year regime.
He also criticised the previous BJP government accusing it of "just cheating" the people of the state in their five years of rule.

"When the government implemented the old pension scheme for the government employees, the Union Government refused to extend the righteous assistance and also reduced the loan limit provided to the state thereby burdening the state with a revenue loss of Rs 1780 crore. He said that the Central Government was also reluctant to return the NPS money to the employees," he said.
CM Sukhu further said that the state government is going to start English medium from first class in all the government schools from the next academic session, thus fulfilling the second guarantee.

He also added that the school management has been given the right to choose one smart uniform for the children.
"In the previous BJP government, there was a significant decline in the education sector in the state, hundreds of schools were opened eyeing upon elections, without any teaching faculty and infrastructural facilities. Due to their mismanagement, Himachal Pradesh dropped down to 18th ranking in terms of qualitative education. We are committed to raising the standard of education and preparing the children keeping in mind the future challenges," he added.
Adding further, the CM said that Rajiv Gandhi Modern Day Boarding schools in each assembly constituency, starting of English medium in all government schools and laying emphasis on IT-based education were the few steps being taken in the direction so that the children studying in Government schools can also have access to quality education.
He said that fulfilling the third guarantee, the state government has started the Rajiv Gandhi Self-Employment Scheme of Rs 680 crore so that the youth can get self-employment opportunities.
"In the first phase of the scheme, the state government was going to issue 500 permits for e-taxi, for which 900 youth have applied so far. The state government has extended the last date for receiving applications by one week from 20th December. The state government is providing a 50 per cent subsidy to the youth for the purchase of e-taxi," he said.
Apart from this, the state government will also provide financial assistance for setting up solar energy projects and will purchase electricity from them for the next 25 years so that they can get fixed income, he added.
He said that for the economic prosperity of farmers, a scheme will be introduced in the upcoming budget to provide fixed income based on natural farming.
"The state government has given approval to fill 1400 posts in the health department and within a year more than 20 thousand employment opportunities will be available in the government sector alone. The government is committed to providing the benefits of welfare schemes to the last person in the queue," he said.
He further listed down the works done by the current Congress government of the state, adding that more than 45 thousand pending mutation and partition cases were settled in the specially held Revenue Lok Adalats.
The Chief Minister also detailed the Sukh Aashray Yojna and the Relief and Rehabilitation measures undertaken by the Government during the natural calamity and counted the manifold changes and increases made in the relief manual to benefit the affected families, besides releasing a relief package of Rs. 4500 crore, to be borne by the State, to assist the disaster affected.
The Chief Minister said that an industrial plant was going to be set up in Kangra district at a cost of Rs 268 crore, which will be ready in a year. The Chief Minister also announced the opening of Ravidas Bhawan and OBC Bhawan in the Shahpur assembly constituency and assured the construction of Gaddi and Rajput Bhawans.