HP Govt increases wages of daily workers

Dharamshala, Jan 6 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said the wages of daily workers have been increased by five rupees from this year besides regularising 21,000 workers who had completed eight years of service on March 31, 2004.

Addressing a public meeting at Hatwas in Kangra district after laying the foundation stone of Government Degree College complex, to be constructed an estimated cost of Rs. 10 crore, he said in all, the government had provided employment to 65,000 people in the government sector alone.

Mr Singh said had it not been for cases filed in various courts of the state, the number of people who would have got jobs in the government sector would have been much higher.

The state government had opened a record number of 15 Degree colleges in a single year which included degree colleges of Nagrota-Bagwan, Shahpur and Baijnath, he said.

He said Rs. 75 crore had been earmarked for the construction of government degree colleges all over the state, adding that this would help in establishing Himachal as the educational hub of the country.

Reiterating his government's resolve for providing a clean, transparent and responsive administration, he said Himachal was the only state in the country that had brought the office of the chief minister under the purview of the Lokayukta.

Mr Singh said his government had created history by holding the Winter Session of state Assembly in Dharamsala twice and had constructed a new Vidhan Sabha building at an estimated cost of Rs.

eight crore.

UNI