CM announces ropeway to Dhauladhar hills

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, January 16

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today sanctioned a ropeway from Bandla village to snow-covered Dhauladhar hills near Palampur town. The Chief Minister made this announcement while addressing a public meeting in the premises of GSSS, Bandla.

Virbhadra Singh said the state had progressed a lot. There was only one college in the state when it came into being whereas today it had 116 degree colleges and over 25,000 schools. A special campaign had been launched to provide qualitative education to the students, especially girls, at their doorsteps.

Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated a veterinary dispensary for gram panchayat Badher, an ayurvedic dispensary for gram panchayat, Gwal Tikkar, and a health sub centre for Deogran gram panchayat. He said that the name of the Palampur circuit house would be named as ‘Son Kunj’.

Speaker of Himachal Vidhan Sabha Brij Bihari Lal Butail said that the Palampur constituency owed its development to the Chief Minister as it had been sanctioning various development projects to this area time to time.

Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma, CPS Jagjivan Pal, MLA Yadvindra Goma, Deputy Commissioner C P Verma and Sanjiv Gandhi SP Kangra were among the prominent persons who were present on the occasion.

‘Land under tea wouldn’t be misused’

Baijnath: “The credit for making Himachal Pradesh a model of development goes to various Congress governments in the state as it has been planning and executing policies and programmes benefitting the common man since the state came into existence,” said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here this afternoon.

He said keeping in view the geographical difficulties of Chhota and Bara Banghal area the state government had planned to set up a degree college at Multhan and a community Health Centre at Bir. He said Baijnath Civil Hospital would be upgraded to a 100-bed facility. He also announced building of a retaining wall for protection of the historical temple of Lord Shiva at Baijnath.

He said that most of the villages of Baijnath constituency had been connected with the road and the remaining would be connected soon. He categorically stated that the land under tea garden would not be allowed to be used for other purposes. As the Kangra tea had its own significance, the state government would take suitable steps along with the Tea Board of India to make it viable.

He urged the teacher community to work hard so that the students were able to compete in the competitive world. He said that moral values and good habits should be inculcated among the students as the education was not about literacy only but abut ensuring their all round development. He said that the onus of making the coming generations more confident, wise and self-dependent rested with with teachers only.

While welcoming the Chief Minister and other guests, the MLA, Kisori Lal, briefed about the ongoing development works in the Baijnath constituency. He alleged that during the BJP regime various institutions were closed down. It was under Virbhadra Singh as CM that offices of SDPO and Soil Conservation, Govt Degree College, Mini Secretariat, Panchayati Raj Training Institutes, etc, were opened.