NREGS to cover entire HP in two years, says CM

Shimla, Oct 17: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said Shimla, Mandi and Kangra districts will be brought under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during the next financial year, while extending it to the entire state in the next two years.

Addressing a public meeting at Smah in Chamba district of the state, he said the scheme, which was being implemented in Chamba and Sirmaur districts of the state, have yielded encouraging results.

Mr Singh said his government has urged the Centre to include Kangra, Mandi and Shimla districts in the scheme from the next financial year, which was likely to be extended to the entire state in the next two years.

Under the scheme, one member of below poverty line (BPL) family would be provided 100 days of assured employment or remuneration for the same period, if no work was available.

He said the employment would only be provided within the four km radius and special concessions would be provided to women.

The state government was creating necessary infrastructure to facilitate growing of off-season vegetables, herbs, flowers, aromatic plants and other cash crops for which technical know how could be made available to the farmers, he said.

The Chief Minister said his government has advised the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) to employ unemployed educated youth in schools and colleges of the state to fill the vacancies of teachers wherever necessary.

Mr Singh said the government was also providing financial grant to the PTAs to pay the salaries of teachers, he said, adding that it had also advised them to pay a minimum of 50 per cent of the basic pay and dearness allowance to all these teachers. Mr Singh said it was entirely a stop gap arrangement and the experiment had been successful in providing unhampered quality education to the students.

Necessary directions have been issued not to replace contract and PTA teachers with regular teachers who would be posted in schools where necessary, he said.

Observing that the demand for teachers was increasing with the opening of new educational institutions, he said his government was in the process of recruiting more teachers in the near future.

He also announced the up-gradation of the Government High School, Smni to Senior Secondary School, Government Middle School Naddal to High School, Government Primary School, Bhalogi to Government Middle School, besides sanctioning a primary health centre (PHC) for Smah, Veterinary Dispensary for Bhanat and Ayurvedic Dispensary for Ghatagla.

UNI