Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Sunday said that the State Government would make all out efforts for strengthening International Roerich Memorial Trust (IRMT), Naggar and making it more viable. He said all possible assistance was being provided by the state government to the Trust to run and manage its affairs.
While presiding over the 17th meeting of the Board of Trustees of IRMT here, he emphasized to hold this meeting more frequently to ensure effective supervision and guidance of the Board Trustees over the affairs of the IRMT. He said the Roerich Memorial Trust was of considerable historical and heritage significance for both Russia and India. The Chief Minister said that the Government of India and the Government of Russia had been contributing significantly to the maintenance and development of this Trust. The Trust was being managed on the basis of mutual co-operation and collaboration by the State Government and the Government of Russia through Russian embassy in India with active support of ICR, Moscow.
He said that the State Government had recently released a special grant of Rs 2 million Indian rupees to support the renovation and restoration activities at the Trust. He said that various initiatives had been taken during this year to provide more facilities to the tourists besides generating the revenue of the Trust which includes immediate repairs, publication of souvenirs, posters, preservation and restoration of documents and regular workshops and exhibitions. He also directed the administration to make plan for construction of new guest house of the Trust to facilitate the visitors.
He said that the old apple plants at the orchard of the Trust plants should be replaced with the new varieties which would ensure more revenue to the Trust.