Shimla, Feb 3 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh government has secured the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) approval for 127 projects worth Rs 903.21 crore for 2024-25, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Monday.
Chairing a meeting with MLAs from Kangra, Kullu, Kinnaur, Solan, Chamba, Bilaspur and Lahaul-Spiti districts here to discuss their priorities for the annual budget 2025-26, he said these projects include 50 MLA-priority schemes under the Public Works Department worth Rs 412.75 crore and 23 MLA-priority schemes under the Jal Shakti Vibhag for Rs 179.07 crore.
These schemes include two major initiatives of the state, including establishment of a 1.5 LLPD capacity dairy processing plant at Dagwar in Kangra district and 96 electric bus charging stations, he said in a statement issued here.
The chief minister said the present state government was ensuring balanced and equitable development of all the assembly constituencies. The priorities have been re-evaluated and recommendations have been made to Nabard without any discrimination. In the last two years, it has sanctioned Rs 1,691 crore for 251 projects for assembly constituencies.
The BJP MLAs did not attend the meeting and Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur maintained that there is no relevance of such a meeting when the works mentioned by the MLAs during the past two years have not been done.
"The chief minister is telling lies. It is unfortunate that even the process of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) of priorities given by the BJP MLAs in the past two years has not started in the majority of the projects and if the DPR is prepared, it is not being forward to Nabard for execution.
"The funds of special assistance given by the Centre to Himachal for infrastructure development are being spent on paying salaries and pension of the government employees and pensioners, which is against the rule," Thakur alleged.
The MLA priorities meetings are a routine exercise that has been ongoing for more than three decades, and district-wise meetings are scheduled for February 3 and 4. This is the first time that the main opposition party has announced its intention to boycott the meetings.
Sukhu said the government has also allocated Rs 1,087.77 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for 2024-25, with 5.28 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
In the upcoming three years, the state government would introduce various schemes for strengthening the rural economy, which would also generate employment opportunities for the local youth, he added.
Efforts were also being made to boost tourism in the state, with a special focus on religious and tea tourism, he said, adding that the tea tourism model of West Bengal would also be studied for possible implementation in the state.
The government was working to root out the drug mafia from the state and assured that stricter measures would be enforced in the near future.
MLA from Indora Assembly Constituency Malender Rajan, MLA Dehra Kamlesh Thakur, MLA Jawalamukhi Sanjay Rattan, MLA Palampur Ashish Butail, MLA Baijnath Kishori Lal, MLA Manali Bhuvneshwar and MLA Kullu Sunder Singh put forward their priorities.
The other MLAs who took part in the meeting included Sanjay Awasthi (Arki), Bawa Hardeep Singh (Nalagarh), Chaudhary Ram Kumar (Doon), Vinod Sultanpuri (Kasauli), Neeraj Nayyar (Chamba) and Anuradha Rana (Lahaul-Spiti). PTI BPL BAL BAL