Budget session: Plans implemented for robust economy, job creation, says Himachal Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar

Shimla, February 23

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar today listed achievements of the BJP regime during his address in the Vidhan Sabha on the opening day of the budget session here today.

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“These have been seva aur siddhi ke, char saal samriddhi ke,” said Arlekar in his 58-page Governor address, delivered in Hindi in one hour 40 minutes. “In these four years my government has implemented many ambitious schemes and programmes to take the state to new heights, create a robust economy, generate avenues for employment and self-reliance for the youth, for socio-economic uplift of women and welfare of farmers and weaker sections of society,” he said.

“While earlier there were only two oxygen plants in the state, now we have 48 with availability of 90 metric tonnes oxygen. Compared to 52 ventilators earlier, we now have 1,014 ventilators and the number of ICU beds has gone up from 52 to 557,” he said.

On the efforts made to attract industrial investment, he said groundbreaking of 287 projects worth Rs 28,197 crores had been held in Mandi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the completion of four years of the BJP regime. “A medical device park has been approved for Nalagarh and I am hopeful that the bulk drug pharma park will also be approved by the Centre for Una,” he said.

He made a special mention of 31 Jan Manch programmes held in 2021 in which 48,478 of 51,461 complaints received were disposed of. “My government has disbursed Rs 39.30 crore to 66,280 beneficiaries under the Unemployment Allowance Scheme during 2021-22,” he said.

Arlekar said 5.13 lakh families had been covered under the Mukhyamantri Himcare Yojana and free medical facilities worth Rs 20 crore had been provided to 2.27 lakh beneficiaries. He added 8.35 lakh tap connections had been installed in the past two years.