HP Government completes four years in office

Shimla, Mar 6 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today expressed satisfaction over the Congress Government completing four years in office in the state and said these were years of peace, prosperity, development and political stability.

Despite the presence of regionalism and casteism in the state, the single biggest achievement of the Congress has been the emotional integration of the state during the last four years, he said at a press conference here, called to mark four years of his government.

Without naming the BJP, Mr Singh said it has been trying to rake up issues like discrimination with lower areas of the state to divide people. ''However, it will not be successful.'' He said Himachal had achieved milestones in education, health and social welfare sectors during the last four years with total investment in the state crossing over Rs 24,881 crore.

The Centre has agreed to include three more districts of the state under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) after the state government had proposed to the Centre to include three districts of Shimla, Kangra and Mandi, he said.

The Chief Minister said since the details were not available now it would be difficult to say which districts of the state have been included in the scheme.

Due to the continued support of the Centre under the successive Congress Governments, Himachal Pradesh has emerged as a role model of development for other states of the country, he said.

He said since 90 per cent of the state's population resided in the rural areas, the emphasis of the government was to improve education, health and other infrastructure facilities there.

Referring to the assembly election results of Punjab and Uttaranchal, he said outcome in the state was likely to be different.

The results of assembly elections would have no impact on Himachal, he said, adding that the BJP's moment of glory was very short.

''Let them for the moment, not deny them the pleasure, of winning assembly elections in these two states,'' Mr Singh added.

UNI