Bring ground-mounted solar projects under rural infra fund: Himachal CM to NABARD

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today urged National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to consider ground-mounted solar projects for funding under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). He said that such projects would help panchayats to achieve energy self-sufficiency and advance the state government’s vision of ‘Green Himachal’.

The Chief Minister asked NABARD Deputy Managing Director GS Rawat, who called on him at his official residence, to include electric buses for the RIDF support. He highlighted the unique challenges of hill states and called for separate norms for them when annual state-wise allocations were decided. He suggested to Rawat that parameters such as forest cover, greening initiatives and ecological contributions should be considered in the process.

He also asked the NABARD delegation led by Rawat to assist the State Planning Department in developing robust and seamless supply and value chains in the Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Department from the farm gate to the consumer to enhance farmers’ income. He emphasised the need for reforming long-established procedures by delegating greater flexibility to state governments to make project-specific changes during the execution phase of NABARD-approved programmes.

NABARD officials highlighted challenges being faced by cooperative societies due to Section 118, which limits their functioning. They also suggested to the Chief Minister to assign the task of milk procurement to Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies instead of creating new societies and expediting the computerisation of the cooperative societies.

Sukhu assured the NABARD delegation that its suggestions would be duly examined and, if found practical, would be integrated into the state’s development strategy. The NABARD officials, in turn, assured the Chief Minister that his suggestions would be taken up at the highest level and efforts would be made to incorporate them into future guidelines.