Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur Sunday told a Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the state government is implementing a Rs 1,000-crore crop diversification scheme.
The Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting was held at the national capital where detailed discussions were held on achieving self-sufficiency in agricultural production and crop diversification, implementation of the new national education policy and urban bodies administration.
According to a press note issued by the Public Relations Department here, Thakur told the meeting the state government is implementing the Rs 1010-crore Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Scheme in all the 12 districts of the state.
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The budget provision has been made for promoting mushroom farming especially Shitake and Dhingree varieties, he added.
Thakur further said 31,584 orchardists of Himachal Pradesh are covered under state-sponsored schemes whereas 4.15 lakh orchardists have benefitted under centrally sponsored schemes during the last four-and-a-half years.
He informed that in order to double the income of farmers, 3590-gram panchayats have been covered under "Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojna" and added that farmers had saved about Rs. 9.75 crores by switching over to natural manure instead of chemical fertilizers.
Thakur said 10 points of sale were set up across the state besides Delhi and Chandigarh for selling natural farming produce. He added that efforts were afoot to increase production of pulses, oilseeds and other agriculture produce to achieve self-sufficiency with the help of advanced technology.
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The CM urged the Prime Minister to allocate five TV channels to Himachal Pradesh out of total 200 channels under recently announced Swayam Prabha which will telecast high quality educational programmes.
He apprised that the gross enrollment ratio of primary, middle and high schools in the state is 100 percent whereas it is 85.6 percent in case of senior secondary schools.
Thakur further added that the ratio goes upto 98.8 percent if technical institutions are added to the senior secondary level. He said that girl children of the state were being provided education and free residential facility besides skill education in 14 Kasturba Gandhi Girls Schools.
He said the education database is being digitised in the state and capacity building of teachers is being done for preparing high quality study material in digital mode.
He further apprised the state government has launched Medha Protsahan Yojna for meritorious students aspiring for competitive services besides Swaran Jayanti Super-100 Yojna. State government is also considering to start Mukhya Mantri Shodh Parotsahan Yojna from the current academic session in universities to facilitate research scholars, he added.
He further informed a drone policy has been framed by the government and students were being imparted training to enable the application of modern technology in the state.
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Thakur said the state government is committed to strengthening the administration of urban bodies by filling necessary posts and improving efficiency in delivering speedy and effective services to the people with the help of the latest technology.
The CM said that GIS Mapping will be used for assessing and collection of property tax and added that single member municipal committee services regulatory committee will be constituted to settle user fees and setting benchmarks for other MC services.
(Inputs from PTI)
