SHIMLA: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has directed all the administrative secretaries to set clear targets and complete the pending tasks to extend benefits of development projects to the people. In a high level meeting with all the administrative secretaries here today, he said that the state government from the very first day had been working to ensure good governance and betterment of the people of the state. He said that the Chief Secretary would regularly review the progress of departmental projects.
As the welfare of the state and its people was the top priority of the present state government, he asked all secretaries to work with dedication to implement plans and schemes on the ground to make Himachal Pradesh a self-reliant state.
He directed that the expansion of Kangra airport should be expedited alongwith other works related to tourism projects. The Chief Minister said that the state government was giving priority to health, education, rural economy, tourism, energy, food processing and data storage sectors besides encouraging investment in these areas. Major reforms were being introduced in the health sector to ensure people get quality treatment near to their homes. The government was also strengthening facilities in all the seven medical colleges in the state equipping them with modern equipments and advanced machines on the lines of those of AIIMS Delhi.
He also emphasized upon promoting electric vehicles and creating the necessary infrastructure for them. The approval process of FRA and FCA cases should be accelerated and departments should focus on digitalization of their works, he said. Nearly 90 percent population of the state lives in villages and therefore the government was working to strengthen the rural economy to benefit the rural populace. The present state government had made a historic increase in milk procurement prices and has also fixed minimum support prices for naturally grown wheat, maize, barley and turmeric. The Chief Minister emphasized for adopting natural farming as it could become a major source of income for farmers and the agriculture department should work with dedication in this direction.
He said that similar to 2023, this year’s monsoon had also caused heavy loss of life and property in the state. However, the state government was doing its best whatever limited resources it have to support and provide relief to every affected family.
He also directed the revenue department to prepare a detailed report of losses caused by this year’s disaster at the earliest so that it could be sent to the Central Government without delay.
Chief Secretary Sanjay Gupta, Additional Chief Secretaries K.K. Pant and Onkar Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary Devesh Kumar, Secretary to the Chief Minister Rakesh Kanwar and other administrative secretaries were present in the meeting.