Rs 1,874.97 cr revenue earned from auction of liquor vends

The state government has earned a revenue of Rs 1,874.97 crore from the auction of liquor vends till July 31, 2025.

In a written reply to a joint query by ID Lakhanpal, Sudhir Sharma, Trilok Jamwal and Randhir Sharma during the question hour in the Vidhan Sabha today, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu informed that 2244 liquor vends out of a total of 2332 had been auctioned in the state this year. “The remaining 88 vends could not be auctioned due to very low bids in the districts of Shimla, Kullu and Mandi and are now being run by various boards and corporations,” Sukhu said.

The Chief Minister said the revenue from liquor in 2023-24 was Rs 1,722.80 crore and in 2024-25 this figure was Rs 1769.68 crore. He said Rs 92.55 lakh and Rs 25.38 lakh payment from these last two years is still pending. He added that 266 cases of illegal smuggling and 4972 cases under NDPS had been registered this year in the state.

HRTC to add 677 new buses

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that the Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC) having a fleet of 3087 buses will add 677 new buses to provide better connectivity to commuters.

Agnihotri, who holds the Transport Department, in a written reply, informed that the 677 buses to be added to HRTC fleet would include 327 electric buses, 250 diesel buses and 100 min diesel buses. He added that presently the HRTC has 110 electric buses in its fleet.

Rajiv Day Boarding Schools

In a written reply to Chamba MLA Neeraj Nayyar, Education Minister Rohit Thakur informed that administrative and financial approval had been granted for the setting up of 21 Rajiv Gandhi Day Boarding Schools in 21 Assembly constituencies in eight districts in the last three years.

“The districts where approval had been given for setting up of these schools includes Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kinnaur, Kangra, Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Una,” said Thakur. He added that 50 bigha forest land had been identified in Udaipur in Chamba constituency for the setting up of the day boarding schools for which approval from the Ministry of Forest and Environment was being sought.

Over 1.15L apply to SSSSB

In a written reply to a query by Hamirpur MLA Ashish Sharma, CM informed that 1,15,503 youth had applied for various posts advertised by the State Subordinate Services Selection Board (SSSSB). He said the application fee deposited by each applicant will be returned as these posts are being re-advertised.

Increase in chitta cases

There has been a consistent increase in the number of chitta cases out of the total cases registered under NDPS Act in the state over the last three years. As per information furnished in the Vidhan Sabha, the number of chitta cases were 1,133 out of a total 2,147 NDPS cases in 2023, 834 out of 1714 in 2024 and 625 out of total 1279 NDPS cases in 2025 till July 2031.