Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu unveils civil court, DSP office, mini-secretariat at Bhattiyat

Chamba, March 11

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today unveiled and laid the foundation stones of nine development projects worth Rs 75 crore in Bhattiyat Assembly constituency in Chamba district.

While addressing a public meeting in Chowari, the Chief Minister announced the opening of the civil court, DSP office, mini-secretariat, fire officer post and Post Graduate College at Chowari of the Bhattiyat segment. He announced Rs 4 crore for conducting a feasibility report of Chamba-Chowari tunnel. He said a new division of Jal Shakti Department would be opened for Bhattiyat and the division of Jal Shakti Department would remain in Dalhousie.

“I come from an ordinary family and worked hard to be Chief Minister. I have seen the struggle,” he said adding that he understood the pain of the common man. “Despite challenges, our government has started many schemes for the welfare of people. The government launched Mukhya Mantri Sukh-Aashray scheme for orphan and destitute children and restored the OPS for government employees to enable them to lead a dignified life after retirement,” he said.

It is not the culture of Himachal Pradesh to betray the mandate of people and go against the ideology of a particular party. He said an attempt was made to overthrow the government during the Budget session.

The Chief Minister said that Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania performed his constitutional duties in the Assembly in a befitting manner and lauded his decisions for upholding the democratic values. He said that his name would be remembered for shielding a democratically elected government despite every effort by the opposition to snatch power.

The Speaker said that to stop horse-trading in democracy, there was anti-defection law in order 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 the CM had announced many public welfare decisions like adoption of 4,000 orphans as the children of state. He said that farmers were demanding minimum support price on their produce from the Central government which was being ignored. The state government had provided support price on procurement of cow and buffalo milk, besides enhancing the support price for organically produced wheat and maize.

Earlier, the CM was accorded warm welcome on reaching Chowari. MLAs Neeraj Nayar and Malender Rajan, former minister Asha Kumari, former MLA Surender Bhardwaj, district Congress working president Chamba Kamal Thakur, DC Mukesh Repswal and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.