Chief Minister unveils, lays foundation of Rs. 75 crore development project in Bhatiyat AC

Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu unveiled and laid foundation of nine development projects worth Rs. 75 crore in Bhatiyat Assembly Constituency (AC) in Chamba district today during his one day visit.

While addressing a public meeting in Chowari, the Chief Minister announced the opening of Civil Court, DSP office, Mini Secretariat, Fire Officer post and Post Graduate College at Chowari of Bhatiyat AC. He announced Rs. 4 crore for the feasibility report of Chamba Chowari Tunnel. He said that a new division of Jal Shakti Department will be opened for Bhatiyat and the division of Jal Shakti Department will remain in Dalhousie.

"I have come from an ordinary family and finally seated as Chief Minister. I have seen the struggles and gone through much hard work" he said adding that he well understands the pain of a common man and despite economic challenges, our government has started many schemes the welfare of the people. The government launched Mukhya Mantri Sukh-Aashray for orphan and destitute children and restored the OPS for government employees to enable them to lead a respected life after retirement.

It is not a culture of Himachal Pradesh to betray the mandate of the people and go against the ideology of a particular party. The people here are honest but when a public representative sells his integrity, he as to face the brunt of the public. He said that the government will complete its five years tenure in the service of its people.

He said an attempt was made to overthrow the government during the budget session wherein many important bills were to be passed for the benefit of the people. Efforts were made to hinder the process of budget. However, the budget was for the welfare of the farmers, horticulturists, youth, women and other sections of the society.

The Chief Minister said that Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania performed his constitutional duties in a befitting manner and lauded his decisions for upholding the democratic values in its true perspective. He said that his name will be remembered in the annals of history to shield the democratically elected government as per the constitutional norms, despite every effort by the opposition to snatch power.

The Speaker said that to stop horse trading in democracy, there was anti-defection law that aims to prevent elected representatives from changing their party affiliations or voting against the party decisions to maintain stability, discourage political opportunism and political defections.

The Speaker said that Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has taken many public welfare decisions, including adoption of 4,000 orphans as the Children of the State. He said that farmers were demanding minimum support price on their produce from the Central Government which was being ignored since long. However, the State Government provided support price on procurement of cow and buffalo milk, besides enhancing the support price for organically produced wheat and maize.

He said that works on various development projects worth Rs. 300 crore were under implementation in Bhatiyat AC and the Rs. 1,000 crore projects will be undertaken in next fiscal for which he thanked the Chief Minister.

Earlier, the Chief Minister was accorded warm welcome on reaching Chowari.

MLAs Neeraj Nayyar and Malender Rajan, former Minister Asha Kumari, former MLA Surender Bhardwaj, District Congress Working President Chamba Kamal Thakur, Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Repswal and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion amongst others.