Rain fury caused Rs 451-cr loss in Chamba: Speaker Kuldeep Pathania

Chamba, November 7

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania today said during the last monsoon, a loss of Rs 451 crore had been estimated to various departmental schemes and assets in Chamba district due to natural disasters.

The Speaker said this while presiding over a meeting of the District Relief and Rehabilitation Committee here on Tuesday. MLAs Neeraj Nayar, DS Thakur, Dr Janak Raj were also present at the meeting.

Pathania said Rs 34.57 crore had so far been released to various departments under the State Disaster Relief Fund for the restoration of various roads, electricity and water supply schemes in the district. Apart from this, the state government had also provided Rs 3.35 crore to the district under a special package, Pathania said.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, allocation of 219 houses had been approved in the first phase to compensate for the damage while in the second phase, 290 houses would be approved soon, he said.

Pathania issued instructions to the officials to speed up the works as per the detailed project report under the disaster mitigation works.

Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan presented detailed report of various works done in the district at the meeting. He said all roads, drinking water schemes and electricity supply systems had been made functional.

The DC also said 9,158 conservation works had been approved by the District Planning Committee under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the district.

Mehla panchayat to get sewerage facility soon

• The Mehla gram panchayat in the Bharmour tribal assembly constituency of Chamba district would be connected with sewerage facility and the tender process for the construction work would start soon, said Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania
• He was presiding over an annual prize distribution function of Govt Model Senior Secondary School, Mehla. In his address, the Speaker underlined the importance of education and stressed on discipline and hard work to realise the dreams.
• Referring to development works of non-tribal areas of the constituency, he said that Rs 8 crore was being spent on the construction of the Mehla-Bhagayar road