Kelkar all praise for Himachali people

Shimla, Jun 9 (UNI) Finance Commission's chairman Vijay Kelkar was all praise for the people of tribal and remote areas of Himachal Pradesh for their optimism, awareness, understanding of problems and needs.

The people like sarpanch at the grass-root level were very articulate and clear in perception about various issues and presented their case in details with facts, he said.

Mr Kelkar said they raised demand for construction of tunnels in tribal and hard areas to cut down the distance and make these areas accessible round the year and also highlighted a major problem of disposal of debris and much during exhibition of work.

The tribal people also mentioned the problem of grazing and informed that pasture areas had shrunk at an alarming rate due to intense human activities in tribal and remote areas.

''These problems are peculiar to hills and it is not possible to appreciate these problems without visiting the area,'' he observed.

One thing which was amazing is that these people living under very harsh conditions did not have even a wrinkle on the face about their plight and were very optimistic, Dr Kelkar added.

UNI AS HS PDT KP1840