Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday announced several developmental projects in Seraj Assembly constituency of Mandi district while charging the Opposition BJP of being “antonym” of development.
Speaking at a public function, he said BJP was antonym of development as whenever the Government tries to open a college, a hospital or any other institution, BJP opposes it. He said local Seraj MlA Jai Ram Thakur should be thankful to Congress Government which had opened two Government degree colleges in Seraj assembly segment, opened SDM office, sub Tehsil office at Chhatri, many roads and Tehsil at Bali-Chowki etc.
“I am indebted to the people of the State whose love, faith and trust made me Chief Minister for sixth time,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the development was a continuous process and as of today, the State had five medical colleges including ESIC, medical college at Ner Chowk in Mandi, Medical College at Tanda, IGMC at Shimla and Dr YS Parmar medical colleges at Nahan had been made operational. Two more medical colleges at Hamirpur and Chamba would soon be made functional.
Virbhadra Singh inaugurated Government degree college building at lambathach completed with an outlay of `8.50 crore. He said the present government had opened 41 degree colleges during past 45 months and made a provision of `5 crore for each college fullfilling commitment of the Government to make higher education accessible to all, especially for girls and it was matter of great satisfaction that the strength of girls were more than boys in colleges, he said, adding that adequate infrastructure and staff was being provided to colleges.
Health and Revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur also appreciated the steps taken by the Government to make Himachal Pradesh an education hub. He said during the last 45 months around 1,010 schools and 41 colleges were opened in the State.
He said as many as 187 schools which were de-notified during the BJP regime were started again by the Congress Government after coming to power.