SHIMLA, 17.05.26-Health Minister Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil and Panchayati Raj Minister Anirudh Singh today here in a press statement while strongly refuting the remark of Opposition Leader Jai Ram Thakur, said that the present state government has fulfilled all the guarantees promised to the people. They said that the Congress party delivers on what it promises and challenged the Opposition Leader to point out even a single guarantee that has not been fulfilled.

They said that in its very first Cabinet meeting, the Congress government restored the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for 1.36 lakh employees, fulfilling its first guarantee. Whereas Jai Ram Thakur had challenged employees to contest elections if they wanted pension benefits during his tenure.

Under the second guarantee, eligible women are being provided Rs. 1,500 per month in a phased manner under the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojana. In the first phase, Rs. 29.12 crore was released as Samman Nidhi to 35,687 women in the state. In the second phase, women from one lakh extremely poor families will receive a monthly pension of Rs. 1,500.

They said that the government fulfilled another promise by launching the Rs. 680 crore Rajiv Gandhi Swarozgar Start-Up Scheme to encourage self-employment opportunities among the youth.

Both the Ministers said that to ensure farmers’ welfare, the government has constituted a Kisan Aayog. To promote natural farming, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for naturally grown wheat has been increased from Rs. 60 to Rs. 80 per kg, maize from Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 per kg and barley from Pangi Valley from Rs. 60 to Rs. 80 per kg. Similarly, the MSP for turmeric has been raised from Rs. 90 to Rs. 150 per kg, and for the first time, ginger has been given MSP at Rs. 30 per kg.

They said that the government has also significantly increased milk procurement prices. The support price for cow milk has been increased from Rs. 32 to Rs. 61 per litre, while buffalo milk has gone up from Rs. 47 to Rs. 71 per litre. In another fulfilled guarantee, the government has started purchasing organic manure and vermicompost at Rs. 300 per quintal to benefit livestock farmers.

The Ministers said that to improve education sector, English-medium education has been introduced from Class 1 in all government schools to provide quality and competitive learning opportunities to children. Rajiv Gandhi Day-Boarding Schools were being opened in every Assembly constituency in a phased manner. In addition, CBSE curriculum schools have already been started 156 across the state.

Fulfilling its promise of employment, the government has provided jobs to more than 23,200 youth in the government sector over the last three years, while the process of filling thousands of vacant posts is still ongoing. Besides this, 51,400 youth have also been provided employment in the private sector.

They further said that the Congress government has empowered horticulturists by allowing them to decide the prices of their produce which has helped them get better returns. The implementation of the Universal Carton System has increased the income of apple growers. Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country to implement a Horticulture Policy and the support prices under the Market Intervention Scheme for fruits like apple, kinnow, malta, orange and galgal have been increased by 25 percent.

Speaking about healthcare reforms, the Ministers said that the government has taken several historic steps to modernize the health sector in the state. For the first time in the state, facilities such as robotic surgery, PET scan, 3 Tesla MRI and advanced CT scan machines have been introduced to provide affordable and accessible healthcare services within the state itself.

They also said that under the 'Apna Parivar-Sukhi Parivar' scheme, the government has decided to provide 300 units of free electricity per month to extremely poor families. Around one lakh families are expected to get benefitted from this initiative, which aims to provide much-needed relief to economically weaker sections of society.